NEWS & LETTERS, February - March 2009
World in View
Venezuelan murders
by Gerry Emmett
A suspect has been arrested in the November murder of three Venezuelan union activists, but questions remain. Richard Gallardo, Luis Hernández and Carlos Requena were shot dead by a gunman on a motorbike in the city of Cagua, southwest of Caracas in Aragua state. They were leaders of the National Workers Union (UNT). Seven members of the UNT have been killed in Aragua in the last two years.
They were involved in a workers' struggle at Colombian-owned Alpina food processing company. Hundreds of workers had occupied the plant and were demanding full payment of money owed them by Alpina. There were clashes with police.
Police have since arrested Julio Cesar Agrinzones Romero, a worker at Pepsi Cola de Venezuela's plant in Villa de Cura in southern Aragua. Luis Hernández was a worker there as well. However, union officials state that Agrinzones Romero was at work the night of the killings.
Suspicions of a professional hit have been raised, in line with the more than 2,500 unionists who have been killed in Colombia in recent decades.
Some unionists in Aragua also pointed to the pro-Chávez mayor of the municipality of Zamora, Aldo Lovera, as a suspect, as Luis Hernández had run against him and demanded a recount of votes. Lovera had allegedly responded with death threats.
Gallardo, Hernández and Requena were members of the section of the UNT which opposes government control of the labor unions, the CCURA (United Autonomous Revolutionary Class Current) and the Workers Left Unity. Demands for a full investigation of their deaths have been heard around the world.
|
