The Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela (TSJ) on Friday evening dismissed the president and the board of directors of the local Red Cross after the opening of an investigation against its president Mario Enrique Villarroel, accused of “harassment” and ” ill-treatment” against volunteers and employees of the institution.
“A wide and diversified restructuring of the Venezuelan Red Cross is ordered”, according to the TSJ judgment ordering the “immediate” dismissal of Mr. Villaroel, historic president of the Red Cross, and of the board of directors.
The court ordered “the constitution of an ad hoc restructuring council” chaired by Ricardo Cusanno, former president of the employers’ union Fedecamaras.
Mr. Cusanno will appoint the members of this council within the next seven days for a term of one year. The same “ad hoc” council will have to call “internal elections to choose the authorities” who will make up the local Red Cross.
Mr. Cusanno announced on Twitter, now renamed X, his commitment to restructure the organization and asked for “the accompaniment of different organizations and sectors of civil society, of the International Federation of the Red Cross”.
The prosecution announced on July 28 the opening of an investigation against Mario Villarroel, 75, president of the Red Cross since 1978, for allegations of “harassment and ill-treatment”.
This announcement came after attacks at the end of July by the very influential deputy Diosdado Cabello, often considered the number two in Venezuelan power behind President Nicolas Maduro, even if he does not belong to the executive.
Mr. Diosdado had accused Mr. Villarroel of “conspiracy” against the government and “mafia activity” in the management of Red Cross funds.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies on Thursday called on Maduro’s government to “refrain” from intervening in the local organization.
And last week, in a statement issued before the announcement of the investigation and the prosecution’s charges, the board of directors of the Venezuelan Red Cross “categorically” rejected Mr. Cabello’s statements, stressing that the institution acted according to the principles of “impartiality, neutrality and independence”.
The statement expressed its “absolute and unrestricted support” to Mr. Villarroel who was an important player in the distribution of tons of humanitarian aid that arrived in the country at the height of the serious socio-economic crisis that the country is going through. During this crisis, with severe shortages of food and medicine between 2014 and 2018, GDP contracted by 80% in ten years.
05/08/2023 10:41:40 – Caracas (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
