Venezuela News 2015: Government Fires Employees for Refusing to Sign Manifesto
Venezuelans have been getting in line to add their signatures to a manifesto railing against the Obama administration's recent decision to sanction seven Venezuelan officials over alleged human rights abuses that occurred during last year’s anti-government protests.
But some Venezuelans say that the people are being coerced into signing.
According Provea, a Caracas-based human rights organization, two employees who worked at the Venezuela’s Vice Ministry of Supreme Social Happiness were just fired for refusing to sign the anti-Obama manifesto.
Provea (Programa Venezolano de Educación-Acción en Derechos Humanos) claims that the government is forcing people into signing in an effort to get as many signatures as possible.
As reported in Fox News Latino, Inti Rodríguez, a spokesman for group, said: “These type of harassment has also been reported in [Venezuela’s state-owned oil company] PDVSA, the Finance Ministry and in Bolivariana de Puertos [state entity in control of the country’s ports].”
Rodríguez remarked that: “Their workers are being required to sign and gather signatures in public places.”
Maduro has officially stated that he has a goal of gathering 10 million signatures before the Summit of the Americas takes place in Panama City on April 10-11.
Since making the decision to gather the signatures, Maduro has referred to his plan every time he has been on TV.
On Thursday Maduro even asked members of his United Socialist Party to knock on doors and ask people to sign the petition.
The Venezuelan leader plans on personally handing the signatures over to Obama.
In the wake of all this, Provea is afraid that Venezuela is falling deeper into a state of “political apartheid.”
Rodríguez recalled that “This already happened in 2004, when the government composed a list out of the people who requested a referendum to try to oust Hugo Chávez.”
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