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Deputies of the National Assembly of Venezuela raise their hands to unanimously approve the draft Agreement for the Protection and Defense of the Honor of Fisherwomen and Fishermen in Our Caribbean Sea, September 30, 2025. Photo: National Assembly of Venezuela.
The National Assembly of Venezuela unanimously approved the draft “Agreement for the Protection and Defense of the Honor of Fisherwomen and Fishermen in Our Caribbean Sea,” which was presented by Deputy Alberto Alvarado during a regular session of the parliament.
Introducing the bill on Tuesday, September 30, Deputy Alvarado highlighted the important role that fishers have played in defending the country, as well as the key role that they played during the years of shortages in Venezuela that were generated by the US blockade.
“Today I have the honor of presenting this agreement,” stated Deputy Alvarado. “We have seen how boats in the Caribbean were attacked and their crews executed without evidence, without investigations, and without any proven criminal cause.”
Deputy Alvarado noted that the US and the far-right opposition have tried to promote the narrative that the US military operations in the Caribbean are directed against the non-existent Cartel of the Suns and that a “surgical” incursion will be carried out for this purpose. However, in reality, the US war ships are targeting Venezuelan fishers, who have been attacked when they go out to the sea in their boats to work.
He also highlighted “the explicit cruelty with which the US demonizes and criminalizes maritime workers,” warning that this is done solely to justify a military escalation against Venezuela in order to bring about a “regime” change.
“Today we see how that process of criminalizing the Venezuelan identity is being carried out through attacks againt one of our fundamental reference points: the fishing community,” Alvarado said, adding that after the US attacked the three boats in the Caribbean, it could never prove that they were carrying drugs, “because they were carrying nothing.”
Similarly, the president of the National Assembly, Jorge RodrĂguez, said that what happened with the boats in the Caribbean constitutes a moral stain on the US, as it goes against the fundamental rights of every human being. He asserted that those responsible for the attatcks boasted about their actions, even though there was no denying that the people on the boat were in a vulnerable situation and that their condition had been ignored.
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Key points of the project
Deputy Alvarado presented four fundamental points to the National Assembly for the project’s approval, which were taken into consideration by the plenary.
They include honoring the courage of the fishers in defense of the homeland, condemning any attack that violates Venezuelan sovereignty, condemning the attacks against Venezuelan fishers at the national and international levels, and publishing the agreement in the Official Gazette.
The bill specified that “any attack or threat that violates the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the homeland, as well as any action that obstructs the country’s economic activity and growth,” will be condemned.
The National Assembly committed itself to repudiating, “before all national and international bodies, the flagrant violation of human rights and of the Venezuelan people’s right to development, particularly those of fishermen and fisherwomen.”
The initiative comes in response to US military attacks in the Caribbean Sea against three Venezuelan boats, killing their crew members.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
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