Posted on 12/28/2004 7:27:19 PM PST by Kitten Festival
As we reported last week, Venezuela's vengeful dictator, Hugo Chavez, continues to target eight helpless fired oil workers for long prison terms. Their "crime" was leading a strike. Former Venezuelan oil company executive Gustavo Coronel points out that they are, shockingly, being charged with crimes and neglect against the state oil company that happened after they were fired from their jobs by Chavez himself on live television.
In today's El Universal, another Unapetrol oil union leader speaks out, pointing out the shifty legal maneuvers the Chavez court has engaged in over Christmas to deny the eight arrested strike leaders any right to defend themselves in court. Chavez will stop at nothing to put them in prison. And he warns that Chavez intends to intimidate and humiliate them. El Universal (and a rough translation on vheadline) is also reporting that the workers are refusing to go to jail, which may lead to some sort of showdown. The stakes rise.
It all seems so pointless. But this seemingly vindictive move against an already broken group of engineers and managers comes direct from the dictator's playbook, with straight lineage from Lenin. Another union leader in the El Universal piece warns that this is a "first step to stunt opposition labor unions in Venezuela."
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I hope so too, but I have a feeling that it is another Tiananmen Square in the making.
As with Cuba, the international Left has absolutely nothing to say about union-busting when Communists are doing it.
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