The World Federation of Teachers’ Unions FISE, a member of the WFTU, expresses solidarity with the Venezuelan teachers who are persecuted, imprisoned and face violence and terrorism, attacks and violation of all their trade union freedoms and rights.
It condemns the government which specifically, on January 21, 2024 using heavily armed police forces, organized an attack on the headquarters of the Barinas State Education Workers’ Union (SINDITEBA), a member of the National Federation of Education Workers (FENATEV), to brutally beat up any teachers who were present there and to take the President of the union, Professor Víctor Venegas, to detention. The police also removed computers and other work equipment from the organization.
The president was immediately transferred and detained in Caracas, 500 kilometers away from his headquarters in Barina’s province. He is accused of being “involved in activities against the peace of the Republic”, linking him to an alleged conspiracy plot.
In reality, the Venezuelan teachers who are demonstrating are fighting for wage increases, the signing of a sectoral collective agreement, which has been expired for many years. In the Barina region this demonstration was massive, almost all the teachers went out on the streets and this annoys the government, which is making false accusations against the trade unionists and repeatedly seeks to deprive the rights and freedoms of those who denounce the government’s antilabor and anti-education policies.
FISE and its member teachers’ unions demand the immediate release of union leaders Leonardo Azócar and Daniel Romero, of the Unified Workers’ Union (SUTISS) and the president of the Barinas State Education Workers’ Union (SINDITEBA or FENATEV-Barinas), Professor Víctor Venegas. We express our opposition to such practices by which the Venezuelan state attacks the workers’ struggle and persecutes union leaders accusing them of inciting hatred.
The criminalization and persecution of workers’ struggles, wherever they are carried out, are aimed at strengthening the system that serves the exploitation of man by man, for the profit of the multinationals and the monopolies.
Your struggle is also our struggle. With militant greetings
THE SECRETARIAT
