Venezuelan Police Repress Workers, Retirees, Pensioners Demanding Better Wages in Caracas

Venezuelan Bolivarian National Police (PNB) officers on Tuesday blocked a group of workers, retirees, and pensioners from finishing a peaceful protest in Caracas demanding better wages.

The Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional detailed that the peaceful protesters marched through the streets of Caracas to manifest their rejection of the current work and economic situation in Venezuela. The protest was reportedly organized by local trade organizations and labor unions.

The protesters also intended to reach the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas and deliver boxes containing over 50,000 signatures endorsing collective demands for better wages and pensions. Venezuela, under the rule of the socialist regime now led by “acting President” Delcy Rodriguez, notoriously boasts one of the lowest official minimum wages in the world. Additionally, El Nacional observed that relatives of the remaining political prisoners in Venezuela joined the peaceful march to demand freedom for the imprisoned individuals.

The march reportedly continued without problem until they reached Fuerzas Armadas Avenue, where a group of PNB officials blocked the passage and prevented them from advancing toward Urdaneta Avenue, where the Miraflores palace is located. According to El Nacional and other Venezuelan outlets, at least six Venezuelans managed to cross the blockade and deliver the boxes. The protest, however, was not allowed to reach Miraflores as originally planned.

Since 2022, deposed socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro kept Venezuela’s official minimum wage at 130 bolivars per month (roughly $0.15 at press time), complementing the virtually worthless wage with a series of socialist stipends and “bonuses” distributed through the infamous Patria (Fatherland) system that generally amounted to some $160 per month by mid-2025. Other individuals reportedly received upwards of $190 thanks to additional bonuses. Patria is a massive social control platform largely inspired by China’s social credit system that contains an extensive amount of information about Venezuelan citizens. Since its inception in the late 2010s, the Maduro regime used Patria not just for monetary stipends, but also to manage monthly gasoline rations and to distribute the highly corrupt CLAP food program, among numerous other uses.

In April, “acting president” Delcy Rodríguez announced that the “integral minimum income” in Venezuela would rise to the equivalent of $240 at the time. Rodríguez, however, did not raise the actual minimum wage amount and the measure only raised the amount received by workers through the Patria system’s monthly stipends.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday during the event, Ana Rosario Contreras, the head of the Venezuelan College of Nurses, detailed that the document calls for the elimination of the Patria system and that wages being received through the system are calculated under new beneficial terms and paid through regular channels, in addition to other demands. Last week, the “acting president” reportedly affirmed that negotiations between the socialist regime and local work and social representatives will yield results in “November.”

Rosario Contreras affirmed that, while there are ongoing political negotiations toward re-institutionalizing Venezuela’s electoral authorities and the Supreme Court, separate negotiating tables have not yielded fruitful agreements in the benefit of the nation’s workers.

Conversely, the outlet Tal Cual reported that a group of public sector workers and Venezuelan ministry staffers held a separate rally in Caracas to deliver a document in support of Delcy Rodríguez and the Venezuelan socialist regime before the headquarters of the National Assembly. Per the outlet, the pro-regime march, organized by the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), occurred without any restrictions.

While some PSUV participants reportedly backed Rodríguez’s “diplomatic approaches” with the United States and President Donald Trump’s administration, others availed themselves of the opportunity to make calls for the liberation of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores — both of whom remain detained in New York awaiting a trial on drug trafficking charges that is set to start in 2027. Additionally, both Maduro and Flores received new charges last week accusing the deposed socialist dictator and his wife of torturing political ​opponents and American citizens.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.