Late Friday night, Venezuelan justice ordered the intervention of the national Red Cross and appointed a board of directors that will be in charge of the restructuring process, a situation that is worrying both in form and substance, It is very similar to what Daniel Ortega did in Nicaragua with this organization.
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The threats were already on the table. The number two of Chavismo, Diosdado Cabello, had repeatedly pointed out on his television program that the president of the humanitarian institution, Mario Villarroel, was accused of abuses and mistreatment of his employees, in addition to having been in office for more than 20 years.
“Harassment of program workers and volunteers. Mr. Villarroel unleashed a persecution through his friend Esther Pernía to harass all the workers of the Capital District and volunteers. The workers didn’t tell me that, I know it because people tell me on the street. They have used the Red Cross to conspire against the Bolivarian revolution.” he claimed.
Given this, Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced the start of an investigation for “harassment and mistreatment” and this Friday The Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) ruled: “A broad and diverse restructuring is ordered in the Venezuelan Red Cross with the participation of sectors of Venezuelan society”.
In this regard, Ali Daniels, co-director of the NGO Acceso a la Justicia, told EL TIEMPO that “there are elements in the decision that cause serious concern. The decision is based on presumptions based on complaints and testimonies from persons not identified in the lawsuit, which means that the facts that are written are also presumed. It is striking that wanting to be president indefinitely and be re-elected stands out as vices of the management of the president of the Red Cross.
For Daniels, This precedent is dangerous, as it -immediately- reminds us of what happened in May in Nicaragua when the Daniel Ortega regime, through a parliamentary decree, dissolved the organization and ordered the management of its assets.
The decision is based on presumptions based on complaints and testimonies from people not identified in the lawsuit.
In the Venezuelan case, the board of directors in charge will be chaired by businessman Ricardo Cussano, former president of Fedecamaras, the largest employers’ association in the country and who has been accused of having ties to the ruling party.
A source close to the events told this newspaper that “Villarroel’s ill-treatment” -which apparently did exist- is just an excuse for the Government to be able to take control of the organization and the humanitarian aid that enters through it.
I inform the country that today I assume with humility and commitment the task of collaborating as a Venezuelan and as a volunteer in starting a process of restoration of the institutionality of the National Society of the Venezuelan Red Cross.⁰- open thread – 1/4
— Ricardo Cusanno (@RicardoCusanno) August 5, 2023
According to the sentence, the “constitution of an ad hoc restructuring board chaired” by Cusanno is established, who must “coordinate”, in the next seven business days, the “appointment of the members who will integrate” this board, as well as “collaborate” with the Prosecutor’s Office in the “investigation and prosecution of the criminal proceeding against the outgoing national steering committee (…)”.
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Likewise, it will be in charge of “guaranteeing continuity in the service provided by the Venezuelan Red Cross, respect for the workers, men and women, volunteers of the institution, and compliance with its objectives, purposes and principles”.
Daniels recalls that in order to understand the impact of this decision it is important to know that the humanitarian movement began with the creation in 1863 of the International Committee of the Cross and that in 1895 it was founded in Venezuela as an independent body, “so that the intervention exclusively affects to the national society and not to the rest of the Red Cross movement”.
“The fact that Red Cross executives have allegedly committed crimes, which if proven, we hope, will be prosecuted for them, does not justify such an invasive and dangerous measure for an essential human right such as freedom of association,” Daniels said, assuring that the right thing to do is the new call for elections for the board of directors.
There have been many criticisms of the intervention. The opponent Juan Pablo Guanipa, from the Primero Justicia party, “regretted” that the businessman Cussano shows his “link to a regime that has destroyed the company, the workers and the quality of life of Venezuelans.”
Other members of civil society believe that this measure is just one more example of the authoritarian progress of the Government of Nicolás Maduro.
ANA MARIA RODRIGUEZ BRAZON
WEATHER CORRESPONDENT
CARACASWith information from EFE
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