Case of jailed union leader in Venezuela draws condemnation from human rights groups [View All]

[naaman fletcher]

CARACAS, Venezuela — Union leader Ruben Gonzalez once admired and supported President Hugo Chavez. Nowadays, he is jailed in a police station in eastern Venezuela, and says his yearlong imprisonment shows the government's intolerance for labour protests.

Gonzalez told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his cell on Thursday that he is confident "divine justice will prevail" and he will eventually be freed. He is being prosecuted on charges stemming from a strike he helped organize that temporarily paralyzed the country's state-run iron mining company in 2009, and his case is drawing condemnation from international labour and human rights organizations.

"The government is criminalizing protests," Gonzalez said by cellphone, which he is allowed to use in the jail.

Gonzalez was scheduled to appear in court Friday, the one-year anniversary of his imprisonment. But he said he does not expect the judge to reach a verdict anytime soon, noting that he has already appeared in court more than a dozen times over the past 15 months, and that hearings have also repeatedly been postponed.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5ieILNmq_T6csMAiVBboO6mi8Wvtg?docId=5715159

"progressives" who support a government that jails union leaders for organizing protests. it boggles the mind.