Legislative in Venezuela: candidate Javier Bertucci pleads for a rise in salaries
Audio 01:14
Candidate Javier Bertucci distributes fish during an electoral rally in the Petare district of Caracas, November 4, 2020. AP - Ariana Cubillos
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
Hope for some, traitors for others.
Ten parties, which present themselves as an alternative to the ruling party, will participate in Sunday's legislative elections in Venezuela.
Some candidates are defectors from traditional opposition parties who boycott the ballot.
Others are free electrons, like Javier Bertucci, an evangelical pastor who had already run for the 2018 presidential election against Nicolas Maduro.
RFI met him.
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With our special correspondent in Caracas,
Marie Normand
A Venezuelan intelligence vehicle is parked in front of the house where Javier Bertucci receives us.
Known for his distribution of soup and sardines during his campaign, the president of the Le Change party explains that the urgency is to vote for an increase in the minimum wage.
“
Fix it at 50
dollars
, and not in bolivar, the local currency which is undergoing a very strong devaluation
.
Javier Bertucci also wants to negotiate a lifting of American sanctions.
And to do this, sit around a table with President Maduro's party.
“
We have to come to an agreement somehow and bring it to the US administration.
To at least ease the penalties.
They are not responsible for the economic crisis but they are the icing on the cake, which pushes us into the ravine.
"
Javier Bertucci maintains that he has contacts with President-elect Joe Biden's team.
That these proposals are achievable, he says, in the first year of his mandate.
He criticizes the opposition, that which does not present in the legislative elections, and which accuses it of being a “
disguised ally
” of Nicolas Maduro.
"
How can you oppose the lifting of the sanctions?"
It's because you're not Venezuelan and you're not even human.
"
Javier Bertucci hopes that the political bloc to which he belongs will obtain enough seats in the Assembly to have weight.
But not too much, he says, so as not to hold up the executive.
Read also: Legislative in Venezuela: towards a large abstention?
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