Vol. 78/No. 40      November 10, 2014

Thousands of people came to the National Assembly Oct. 3 to honor the two and marched in the funeral procession led by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

These are not the first assassinations of Venezuelan government figures. Eliécer Otaiza, a United Socialist Party local councilor, was murdered in Caracas in April. Serra’s bodyguard was assassinated in 2012. State attorney Danilo Anderson, who led the prosecution of several of those charged with taking part in the failed 2002 U.S.-backed rightist military coup against then-President Hugo Chávez, was assassinated in a car-bombing in 2004.

Workers in the U.S. and around the world should condemn the killing of Serra and Herrera. The aim of the murders is to close space for workers, farmers and youth to advance their class interests and set back ongoing struggles that began with the 1989 “Caracazo” uprising against anti-working-class measures imposed at the time by the government of President Carlos Andrés Pérez. These political assassinations are aimed at dealing blows to the country’s political and economic independence from Washington and its collaboration with the revolutionary government of Cuba. They’re aimed at working people involved in struggles for land, improved conditions on the job, and access to education, health care, water, electricity and housing.

—MAGGIE TROWE