The regional coalition Observatorio para la Defensa de la Vida (The Observatory for the Defense of Life, ODEVIDA), an alliance between Pares-Colombia, PROVEA-Venezuela and regional organizations, presented its most recent bulletin titled “Violence against union leaders: the setbacks of the working class in Venezuela” on the situation of labor and trade union rights defenders in Venezuela in the current context.

The research was conducted through the review and analysis of different sources of information, spanning from the Annual Reports (2015-2020) by the Venezuelan Education-Action Program on Human Rights (Provea) and regular reports by the Venezuelan Observatory on Social Conflict ( OVCS) from 2015 to 2020, as well as interviews with trade union leaders and human rights activists who contributed their views on a situation that affects social actors fighting for trade union freedom in Venezuela.

The panorama of violence

Between 2015 and 2020, ODEVIDA registered a total of 82 cases of violence against defenders of labor rights and union leaders, including 44 cases of murder (53.66%) -one of them presumably related to the action of the Bureau for Scientific, Criminal and Forensic Investigations (CICPC)-, 28 cases of arbitrary detentions (34.15%), 5 cases of threats or intimidation (6.10%), 4 cases of attempted murder (4.88%), and 1 case of ill-treatment (1.22%). Four of the 82 cases of violence were against women.

Faced with the type of victims of this violence, in 23 (28.05%) of the 82 cases documented the victims belonged to construction unions; 21 (25.61%) to unions of the State-owned companies in the southern Venezuelan state of Bolívar; 11 (13.41%) to Trade Union Confederations; 6 (7.32%) to Public Administration unions; 4 (4.88%) to oil industry unions; 4 (4.88%) to private company unions; 3 (3.66%) to unions of the health sector; 3 (3.66%) to unions of electrical companies, while information was not available for 7 other cases (8.54%).

It is worth noting that the lack of information from official sources such as the annual management report of the Ministry of Popular Power for the Social Process of Work, which has not published indicators on freedom of association since 2016, made it necessary to resort to information provided by the International Organization of Labor (ILO).

In 2019, the Commission of Inquiry issued a report on Venezuela, which denounced that the right of workers to form unions to improve their working and economic conditions and the right of employers to promote their initiatives were not being respected.

ODEVIDA focused the investigation on the human rights violations that affected workers and union leaders as a result of State and State-sponsored violence with the acquiescence or complicity of public authorities, especially violations of the right to life and individual freedom.

You can download the Bulletin on violence against union leaders HERE (Spanish)

Translated by José Rafael Medina