Caracas (AFP) – Some 1,500 people demonstrated on Friday on the occasion of May 1 in Caracas, capital of Venezuela, to demand a salary increase and protest against the 26% increase announced the day before, a "joke" in relation to the cost of living.

Published on: 05/01/2026 - 9:35 p.m.

Other demonstrations took place in the country, according to AFP correspondents.

Interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who succeeded Nicolas Maduro, captured in January by the American army, announced Thursday that the "full minimum income" would increase from 190 dollars to 240 dollars per month (+26%), without giving more details.

This income is made up of a poverty-stricken minimum wage (less than 30 cents per month) plus food and "economic war" bonuses that the government has introduced, being unable to increase the minimum wage (and the additional cost of social security contributions).

“A bonus is not a salary,” chanted the demonstrators, who marched for around 4 km in the center of Caracas.

Dozens of riot police blocked certain roads, but there were no clashes, AFP journalists noted on site.

The announced increase is “a joke, a deception,” said Franklin Velasquez, a 61-year-old union leader. "Today, workers in Venezuela do not know what the minimum wage is..."

During the announcement, Ms. Rodriguez, who had announced a "responsible" increase, was pleased to grant the "largest increase in recent years".

This is far from enough to pay for the basic monthly food basket of $700 for a family of five.

Juraina Palacios, a 55-year-old protester and teacher, believes that "what she (the president) did yesterday was an abuse."

Demands are mounting in a devastated economy that is not recovering after years of inflation and crisis. Inflation in 2025 was 475%, the highest in the world.

The country, which has the largest oil reserves in the world, saw its GDP fall by 80% between 2012 and 2021.

The president promises better days, notably thanks to reforms to the oil law and the mining code, which open the sector to the private sector and should attract large investments.

“It’s not fair,” said a trade unionist, José Patines, in Barinas (southwest), the native region of ex-president Hugo Chavez (1999-2013) where hundreds of people gathered. “The worker cannot continue to carry on his shoulders a crisis that he did not cause.”

© 2026 AFP

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