Delcy Rodríguez called for correction of “past mistakes” and “not to repeat them”
Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, promised on Wednesday a “responsible increase” in wages, eroded by years of inflation and the collapse of the economy over the last decade.
“I announce that, on May 1st, we will make an increase and that this increase, as we indicated, will be a responsible increase”, declared Rodríguez during a speech on state television, without giving details about the salaries he referred to or the amounts proposed by the government.
Delcy Rodríguez announced a series of measures to boost the country’s economy, although without defining concrete actions, which include the review of the Chavista model, with the promise of social dialogue, salary increases, tax reforms and changes to real estate legislation.
The president, who took power after the capture of Nicolás Maduro by the United States, called for the correction of “past mistakes” and “not to repeat them”.
“Our immediate objective, in the medium and long term, is to recover workers’ income in a sustained and gradual manner through productive growth, both in the area of hydrocarbons and in mining, which generate immediate income”, he stated in the message to the country, lasting almost half an hour, whose transmission briefly failed due to a power outage.
The value of the monthly minimum wage in Venezuela has been frozen since March 2022 at a value that was then equivalent to 30 dollars (26 euros), but chronic inflation and devaluation currently keep it at 27 cents on the dollar (23 cents on the euro), according to the official exchange rate.
Rodríguez confirmed that, last March, a monthly bonus received by public employees in bolivars, at the official exchange rate of the day, and which has no impact on employment benefits, increased from 160 to 190 dollars (from 137 to 163 euros), following a sale of fuel oil, a fuel derived from petroleum, in the context of the opening of the oil sector and rapprochement with the United States.
Furthermore, the Chavista leader reported the creation of a commission for “labor dialogue”, in the context of workers’ protests, which demand salary increases.
The announcements appeared on the eve of a march called by unionists to the Executive headquarters, in the center of Caracas, to demand answers to their demands.
The government official also ordered the creation of another commission for the “strategic” evaluation of the country’s assets, which will be made up of the State, the private sector and workers, although she clarified that this process will not include the hydrocarbons industry.
If “the recovery of Venezuela’s assets” “blocked abroad” takes place within the scope of the sanctions imposed on the country, these resources will be allocated “immediately” to guarantee salary increases and the “rehabilitation of basic infrastructures”, such as electricity and water supply, roads, schools and hospitals, said the interim president.
