Venezuelan activists handed down 16-year jail sentences

Venezuelan trade unionists and activists Reynaldo Cortés, Alfonzo Meléndez, Alcides Bracho, Néstor Astudillo, Gabriel Blanco, and Emilio Negrín were sentenced Tuesday to 16 years in jail for “conspiring” against President Nicolás Maduro, it was reported in Caracas. The defendants were arrested between July 4 and 7, 2022, while staging protests in demand of wage increases and improvements in working conditions.