Venezuelan government managers to lose jobs over recall

[Zorro]

Source: AP

President Nicolas Maduro is ordering retaliation against managers in government agencies who signed a petition to recall him from office.

Socialist party leader Jorge Rodriguez said Monday that Maduro had set a 48-hour deadline for ministers to fire high-ranking public workers who added their names to a petition seeking a new presidential election.

The sackings would affect the ministries of food, finance, work and basic business, as well as workers in the office of the president.

Hundreds of public workers have already said they were fired this summer after signing the petition.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuelan-govt-workers-lose-jobs-131607837.html

---

It's all the USA's fault, I'm sure.

[NaturalHigh]

1. Maduro is a dictator, just like Chavez before him.

Most of us would probably agree that a little socialism isn't necessarily a bad thing, but this guy is just a heavy-handed dictator who doesn't know what he is doing.

[Archae]

2. The Purges will be starting soon...

Stalin, anyone?

[vinny9698]

7. Stalin would have them sent to Siberia

Not fired them
It would be like if you signed a petition to impeach the sitting president and you were an appointee of that president.

[msanthrope]

3. Obviously, it's the CIA. nt

[Dr. Strange]

4. Thanks Obama.

[FairWinds]

5. It would be nice if the US stopped interfering in

Venezuela's internal affairs - by, among other things, funding and
training anti-government groups. And listing Venezuela as a
"national security threat" is ridiculous.

If the US is allowed to meddle in Venezuela, than what is wrong
with Putin and Russia meddling in the US?

And why can't Russia meddle in Crimea?

Oh, I forgot. The US is "exceptional."

[PersonNumber503602]

11. And stop reporting stuff like this in the news. Totally not cool.

[Hortensis]

14. The dismissal and contempt that IMO these attitudes reveal about other

peoples and cultures is truly bizarre. I wonder if these nations even exist as some amorphous form in these thoughts, or if only names of nations, some letters strung together, are needed to trigger this kind of reaction.

Please don't answer. We have Venezuelan friends back in California, and I just feel a need to say something.

[vinny9698]

6. Obama, Bush, Clinton, just about any president would do the same thing

It would be like if some political appointees signed petitions to impeach the president you are serving.If they are in position of power they might be tempted to sabotage.

The word come from the French word for shoe. Sabot.
French workers in order to take a break would throw a shoe into the machinery in order to stop the machine.

[24601]

16. This kind of retaliation isn't tolerated when it's discovered. I'm a career civil servant with

Hatch Act restrictions stopping me from partisan politics.

In 1998, my SES Office Chief came back from a meeting fuming because someone was wearing an "Impeach Clinton" button and he asked if that was a Hatch Act violation. As his Chief of Staff, I had the task of getting him his answer. First I called our Designated Ethics Office and they referred me to the U.S. Office Of Special Counsel (OSC), an independent agency that whose primary mission is to safeguard the merit system by protecting federal employees and applicants from prohibited personnel practices. OSC authorities come from four federal statutes: the Civil Service Reform Act, the Whistleblower Protection Act, the Hatch Act, and the Uniformed Services Employment & Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA).

Their determination was that impeachment is a constitutional process that is not partisan under any statutes. Advocating for or against removal from office was equivalent to petitioning for congressional action (itself a constitutionally protected activity) for passage of legislation.

They responded that wearing an "Impeach Clinton" button was a protected activity and taking action against a civil servant for wearing could result in disciplinary action (against the manager) and the individual affected would have a cause against the department.

OSC is not related to the Independent Counsels (e.g. Starr) that investigated high governmental officials. Here is OSC's website: https://osc.gov/Pages/about.aspx

[Igel]

8. Of course,

If you work for the government, you work for the people.

Meaning that you support the people, and the government that is the people.

If you support the government, you have to support the leadership, esp. the leader, because he's the government.

After all, by supporting the leader you're actually supporting the people, and any person who opposes the leader isn't really part of the people.

[Zorro]

10. Thanks for clearing that up

[christx30]

12. The people also voted for the new legislature.

And the leader's courts have ruled everything the legislature wanted to do as unconstitutional. And the leader then disbanded the legislature. So isn't the leader against the people too?

[ripcord]

9. Ministries of food, finance, work and basic business

Since those things don't exist in Venezuela anymore I guess the ministries don't really need to be staffed.

[FairWinds]

13. And by the way, the phrase below is a sure sign that propaganda is forthcoming . .

"It's all the USA's fault, I'm sure."

It is meant to cut off reasoned debate, and forestall any
and all criticism of US foreign policy.

Well, neither I nor Vets For Peace is buying that line.

[Zorro]

15. Nothing preventing you from hijacking the thread

and blaming the USA for Maduro's actions, if you want to deflect criticism of the Venezuelan government.

I wouldn't advise it, though.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

17. "It is meant to cut off reasoned debate"

What is a good reason for firing people for signing a petition?