Executives of some of New York’s top unions have long served as mouthpieces for Venezuela’s left wing socialist government formerly headed by strongman Nicolas Maduro, an analysis by a labor watchdog group claims.
Three New York labor officials visited Venezuela in 2017 to monitor the National Constituent Assembly elections, at the invitation of the Venezuelan Transport Workers Union, and all gave fawning reviews of the now-ousted Maduro regime.
The trio included Estela Vazquez, then-executive vice president of the 1199 SEIU Health Care Workers Union East, John Patafio a vice president of Transport Workers Union Local 11 and Judy Gonzalez, former president of the New York State Nurses Association.
“I would say that (people) need to come and see for yourselves what is happening in Venezuela. You can not rely on CNN or any other international communication or papers like the New York Times or the Washington Post, because they are only reflecting the story of the ruling classes, the oligarchy of this country, that want to preserve their interests,” Vazquez told a media outlet tied to the socialist government.
“They’re reflecting the voices of the 1%, while 99% of the Venezuelans support the process, support their government and they want peace and they want to continue the social gains they have made under the Bolivarian Revolution,” she was quoted as saying to Caracas-based media outlet Telesur.
The headline of the article: “US Trade Unionist Unmask Mass Media Lies on Venezuela Assembly.”
Vazquez’s union also co-hosted and delivered the opening remarks at an African leadership summit on Sept. 28, 2015 that featured Maduro — the deposed dictator brought to the US by President Trump’s administration to face charges including conspiracy to commit narcoterrorism and import cocaine.
Gonzalez told the outlet that the election was well organized, without violence or chaos.
“We visited several polling places and that was when we were just so moved by what was going on. We were just overwhelmed by the number of young people and women who were basically running the vote,” said Gonzalez, adding she was impressed by the transparency.
Patafio agreed, telling the local outlet: “I’ve been through a lot of union elections, I know what to look for when there’s cheating, I didn’t see any cheating.”
“I saw a very open process; I saw the people that were controlling it, were people from the community, earnest. So, I thought it was fine,” he said.
Vazquez, Patafio and Gonzalez were not immediately available for comment Monday.
Independent groups such as Human Rights Watch said Venezuela at the time was a dictatorial regime.
“Accumulation of power in the executive branch and erosion of human rights guarantees have enabled the government to intimidate, persecute, and even criminally prosecute its critics,” Human Rights Watch wrote in a 2017 report.
Union leaders, meanwhile, have opposed the US military’s capture of Maduro and his wife of drug charges this month.
“We should be demanding the immediate release of Nicholas Maduro and Cilia Flores,” said Benjamin Dictor, the New York-based counsel for the United Auto Workers.
The Center for Union Facts slammed the labor leaders for playing footsies with a repressive socialist regime.
“The hypocrisy here is insane. They’re standing up for a dictator in a repressive regime,” said the interest group’s spokesperson, Charlyce Bozzello. “It’s disconnected from reality. It’s pretty shocking.”
Current TWU president John Samuelsen said the union did not pay for Patafio’s trip, and that he went of his own volition.
The union booted Patafio from his position as the Local 100’s vice president for its Brooklyn bus division for trying to improperly punish a philandering bus driver rep, The Post reported last year.
