Caracas. Some 1,500 Venezuelan workers, between active and retired from the public administration, demanded on Monday an increase and the dollarization of their “indigence wages”, pulverized by rampant inflation.
“Sign the contract… in dollars”, sang a group of protesters to the rhythm of guaracha with charrasca and drums, who tried to march to the Attorney General’s Office but the police blocked the way.
“Critical poverty. Indigence wages. No to extermination,” read one of the banners. “Together for a living wage”, “It is not blockade, it is looting”.
The ruling Chavismo – which places all the responsibility for the crisis on international sanctions – called in parallel to another demonstration in support of President Nicolás Maduro, who calls himself the “worker president” because of his origins as a union leader and must participate in the act.
Maduro did not announce a minimum wage increase of 130 bolivars, equivalent to $5.25 and the lowest in Latin America, but did announce monthly “war” bonuses of $60.
“I am here to demand as a Venezuelan and as an educator a decent salary, a fair salary (…) that is enough to cover the basic basket,” demanded Lisbeth Verdu, a 39-year-old teacher. “This inflation has us on the floor.”
Maduro decreed the last increase in March 2022, when it went from 7 to 130 bolivars. At that time it was equivalent to a little less than 30 dollars, but since then the Venezuelan currency has devalued 82%.
That money is enough for a kilo and a half of chicken thigh, just over two dozen eggs and 2.6 kg of bologna.
“We don’t live, we survive,” says Dary Romero, 50, a hospital nurse where she earns 160 bolivars. “The salary goes away in the passage (of the truck), but we work with a great vocation for service.”
Basic basket
Maduro’s announcement about the $60 bonus is far from the $510 that the basic basket costs, according to private estimates in this country that accumulates year-on-year inflation of 501%, according to the Venezuelan Finance Observatory, a reference given the lack of figures. officers.
“I would like to have the resources to do more, we are doing more with less,” Maduro insisted.
Venezuela has been plunged into a deep economic crisis for years, aggravated by the sanctions that sought the fall of Maduro, which include an oil embargo.
