Venezuela: , we will take over their factories,” said Jesus Diaz, spokesperson for the Pio Tamayo Commune in Lara

Democracy and Class Struggle says no time for Liberalism in Venzuela Smash the Counter Revolution - Red Salute to our comrades in Lara


“If they continue with their guarimbas, we will take over their factories,” said Jesus Diaz, spokesperson for the Pio Tamayo Commune in Lara.

Several private companies in Venezuela connected to the country’s right-wing opposition are asking workers not to come in for their shifts next week.

Claiming to defend their workers’ safety amid ongoing protests, the companies are backing opposition calls for a national strike against President Nicolas Maduro.

But for workers supportive of Maduro and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) the strike is merely a trap intended to sabotage Venezuela’s economy.

“These actions planned against our revolutionary people are a desperate attempt by the empire to overturn our Bolivarian Revolution,” Jesus Diaz, a member of the Popular Movement of Lara, told Resumen Latinoamericano. 

The Popular Movement of Lara is a coalition of communes and workers’ organizations in the northwestern state.

“We are organized and we will defend our revolution as always.”

Diaz, who also serves as a spokesperson for the Pio Tamayo Commune in Venezuela’s western state, assured Resumen Latinoamericano that workers in the region will continue work as usual. The Popular Movement of Lara’s boycott of the right-wing strike is supported by dozens of other communes and workers’ councils across the country.

Workers supportive of the Bolivarian Revolution have also vowed to take over and manage factories abandoned by right-wing bosses.

One of the opposition-aligned institutions supporting the opposition strike is the Catholic University of Andres Bello, one of Venezuela’s largest private universities.

On Friday, the institution announced that all classes and campus activities will be suspended due to the “situation of uncertainty and insecurity” affecting the country. The Catholic University of Andres Bello won’t reopen until April 25, when a session of university officials will be held to “reassess the issue," El Universal reports.

Other opposition-aligned institutions backing the right-wing strike include privately-run supermarkets and transportation companies.

“If they continue with their guarimbas, we will take over their factories,” Diaz told Resumen Latinoamericano.

Guarimbas are street blockades organized by right-wing protesters who use Molotov cocktails, burning tires and rocks to attack police and civilians.