LatinNews Daily - 05 May 2026

*Venezuela’s labour minister, Carlos Alexis Castillo, has told local radio station Circuito Onda that there will not be a general increase to the minimum wage, contradicting a 30 April announcement from President Delcy Rodríguez. The president had said that the minimum wage would rise to the equivalent of US$240 per month, up from 130 bolívares (US$0.26) currently after four years of inflation and currency depreciation since the last increase in 2022. Castillo said that “we can’t raise salaries because this would cause inflation to shoot up” and further erode Venezuelans’ purchasing power. Castillo said that the government would instead provide bonuses to workers in five sectors – healthcare, primary education, university education, the police, and the armed forces. The opposition coalition Plataforma Unitaria Democrática (PUD), which convened pro-democracy demonstrations in Venezuela and in cities around the world on 3 May, had issued a statement on 1 May criticising Rodríguez’s announcement on the minimum wage. “The income of Venezuelan workers continues to depend on political decisions, discretionary bonuses, and administrative adjustments, instead of resting on a productive economy, real salaries, investment, contractual freedom, and formal employment,” the PUD lamented.

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