Öppet brev: Protest mot fängslandet av fackföreningsledaren Gabriel Blanco

Mr. Orlando Ramón Ortegano Quevedo,
Ambassador of Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Finland and Sweden

Your Excellency,

The Swedish Trade Union Confederation, representing 1,4 million workers, together with the Olof Palme International Center express our solidarity with Gabriel Blanco, communications director of the Caracas branch of the ASI Venezuela trade union centre, along with a group of trade union leaders from various sectors who were being prosecuted for different reasons and have been condemned to 16 years in prison following a sentence issued on 1 August 2023.

This sentence affects the right to freedom of association, which is very closely integrated within the body of fundamental civil and political rights and is expressly recognised in the most important international and regional treaties, such as the international covenants on civil and political rights, and economic, social and cultural rights adopted by the United Nations or the American Convention on Human Rights and its Additional Protocol, in the inter-American sphere.

[…]

We urge the executive branch, within the framework of the separation of powers, to act to safeguard civil and political rights and the right to freedom of association in Venezuela, to respond with urgency to the judicial measure taken against trade union leaders, to ensure the widest possible exercise of trade union activity in the country, in accordance with ratified international conventions (C87 and C98) and not to jeopardise the process of social dialogue.

Yours sincerely,

Oscar Ernerot,
Head of International Department, LO

Anna Sundström,
Secretary General, Olof Palme International Center

Läs hela brevet (ENG)