The Agrarian Court 1 of First Instance of the state of Lara decreed a protection measure for agro-industrial production activity on the facilities of the Río Turbio Sugar Mill, located on the old Yaritagua highway, Chorobobo sector, La Unión hacienda, Palavecino municipality (Cabudare) Lara.
This decision was published in a poster inserted in a regional newspaper. The aforementioned sugar mill, as a private company, became inoperative in mid-2019 due to the abandonment of its managers led by José Ricardo Sigala Peña, leaving a debt for raw materials for the production of refined sugar, according to investigations.
Hence, on December 3, 2020, the Ministry of Labor issued a resolution published in Official Gazette No. 42,021 through which it issued the Temporary Occupation measure, through a Special Administrative Board.
Parallel to this, the Ministry of Food demanded payment from the commercial company Azucarera Río Turbio of 4 million 863 thousand dollars 658 and 50 cents, equivalent to € 4,536,344.73, which is the highest value currency established by the Central Bank of Venezuela for this type of claims.
The reactivation
To reactivate operations in the aforementioned plant, the State signed an alliance with the company Empaquetadora Las Nieves CA, attached to the Turkish-Venezuelan chamber of commerce, on June 15, 2021. The representatives of said company observed a series of actions that in their opinion disturb the alliance established with the State. One of these actions is the appointment, on December 16, 2025, of a new Special Administrative Board, made up of Jhonny Jesús Pérez Montilla, Gerardo Andrés Quintero Meneses and María Carolina Fernández Marcano, according to Official Gazette number 43,281.
Motivated by this and because such decision was not consulted with the allied company, that is, Empaquetadora Las Nieves, its representatives requested a measure of protection for agricultural activity, which was agreed on last January 23. In response to this, the Agrarian Court 1 of First Instance of the state of Lara issued such a measure by which “citizens Jhonny Jesús Pérez Montilla, Gerardo Andrés Quintero Meneses and María Carolina Fernández Marcano (these are the members of the new Special Administrative Board) are prohibited from refraining from making and innovating any contractual or behavioral act that undermines, restricts or limits productive agroindustrial activities in the aforementioned society. commercial under warning of contempt of judicial authority.
Likewise, the protection decree issued by the Larense court ”orders the obligation not to hire or incorporate personnel who are not on the payroll for the present date of the precautionary request and the mobilization of personnel who are in the housing units owned by the personnel of the commercial company Empaquetadora Las Nieves.”
The agricultural court also urges citizens Jhonny Jesús Pérez Montilla, Gerardo Andrés Quintero Meneses and María Carolina Fernández Marcano (new Special Administrative Board), as well as any other passive third party in the present case, that based on the collective and social interest that must coexist in the present case, in accordance with the principle that seeks social peace, it is necessary that a relationship of respect and mutual understanding be established affirmatively for the development of a harmonious environment and common good between them that allows for good development of the activity protected here.
Action of the TSJ
In the midst of the lawsuit filed by the Ministry of Food against the former directors of the central company, the Political-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice changed the judicial overseer of the aforementioned company and appointed a person suggested by the former owners of the commercial company, which was interpreted by workers’ representatives as the return of the company to the Sigala family.
Through the aforementioned decision, the magistrates of the Political-Administrative Chamber appointed Juan Carlos Rodríguez as judicial overseer of the sugar mill and revoked Gabriel Pérez, who had been serving in that position for being the legal consultant of the Ministry of Food, as read in ruling 753 published on August 13, 2025.
Letter to the Turkish ambassador
This whole situation was reported to the Turkish ambassador Naci Aydan Karamanoglu by Empaquetadora Las Nieves, a company attached to the Turkish-Venezuelan Chamber of Commerce.
In the letter they recalled that they signed an alliance with the Venezuelan State on June 15, 2021 for the productive reactivation of the Rio Turbio Sugar Mill. ”Through the intervention of the Venezuelan State and the designation of a Special Administrative Board, under the legal protection of article 149 of the Organic Law of Labor, Men and Women Workers (Lott) within the framework of the subscription of the Alliance, we work in perfect harmony and coordination, respecting and fulfilling contractual and legal obligations, resulting in the reactivation of productive operations and the recovery of more than 430 jobs, achieving the refining of approximately eighty thousand (80,000) tons of industrial and domestic sugar,” says the letter to which we had partial access.
”It is important to highlight that in July 2025, we activated the last cycle of the work plan, through a significant investment by our company, we began the work of recovering the milling and the promotion and promotion of sugar cane production with the sugar cane growers of the state of Lara, reaching important agreements to promote and reactivate the planting and harvesting of sugar cane, with the strategic objective of strengthening the primary sector and agriculture in the Region,” adds Empaquetadora Las. Snow in the letter.
“However, on December 16, 2025, the Ministry of Popular Power for Labor, appointed without prior conversations, mutual consultations, or coordination with our operating company, a new Special Administrative Board, which does not comply with the requirements of the law…who have carried out a set of actions of disruption and siege in operations that imply the difficulty and delay of work plans, altering the good faith of the contracting parties of the Alliance. It is important to note that citizens before mentioned do not belong to the workers of the plant or the employer, thus violating the provisions of article 149 of the Lott, likewise, they have prevented the access of our managers and technicians who have worked throughout all these years, causing harm and unjustified delay and impeding compliance with the work and production schedules of the plant.”
The Las Nieves Packing Company requests the Turkish ambassador that through intermediation “the mechanisms of coordination, conversation and understanding be promoted, which allow the continuity of the work, the protection of the investment and the contractual instrument of the Strategic Alliance in compliance with the Law.”
