The First Agrarian Court of Lara revoked the measure that it previously issued on January 23 and which consisted of the protection of 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.
Such decision is contained in file KP02-S-2026-00134, signed by Judge Ninfa Hernández on January 26, 2026.
On January 23, the Agrarian Court 1 of Lara published a poster in a newspaper of the western entity announcing the protection measure for the aforementioned sugar mill. Through that first ruling, Judge Hernández prohibited the new members of the Special Administrative Board of the Central Azucarero from “refraining from making and innovating any contractual or behavioral act that undermines, restricts or limits productive agroindustrial activities in the aforementioned commercial company.”
But three days later, that is, on October 26, the same judge Hernández revoked her own sentence and left “the poster, the orders and the ordered ballots” without any effect.
The reasons that led her to make such a decision were expressed in a single paragraph of the sentence. “Now, in the matter under study, it appears that said order, where the provisional measure was agreed, is necessary under constitutional and legal principles to abide by the right to defense and to carry out the procedure in an integral manner for the purposes that the parties demonstrate their best right, which is why the order dated January 23, 2026 is revoked by contrary imperative,” says Judge Hernández.
The measure that was revoked had been requested by the representatives of the private company Empaquetadora Las Nieves CA, attached to the Turkish-Venezuelan chamber of commerce, which formed an alliance with the State to reactivate operations at the Rio Turbio Sugar Mill after it was abandoned in mid-2019 by its former directors headed by José Ricardo Sigala Peña.
The aforementioned alliance was signed on June 15, 2021. But at the end of 2025, the alliance began to break down due to decisions by the Ministry of Labor that disrupted the operation of the sugar mill, as expressed by Empaquetadora Las Nieves in a communication sent to the Turkish embassy.
“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 to the employer, thus violating the provisions of Article 149 of the Organic Labor Law. 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,” says a paragraph of the letter.
The new Special Administrative Board of the Río Turbio Sugar Mill to which Empaquetadora Las Nieves refers is made up of Jhonny Jesús Pérez Montilla, Gerardo Andrés Quintero Meneses and María Carolina Fernández Marcano.
That is why Empaquetadora Las Nieves requested the First Agrarian Court of Lara to issue a measure to protect the agro-productive activity that has been taking place in the Río Turbio Sugar Mill.
Hence, the court urged the new Special Administrative Board to foster “a relationship of respect and mutual understanding affirmatively for the development of a harmonious environment and common good.”
Three days after making that decision, Judge Ninfa Hernández revoked ”the protection of agro-industrial production activity…on the commercial company Empaquetadora Los Andes”.
The comings and goings
- Once the previous board left the facilities of the Río Turbio Sugar Mill in mid-2019, the Ministry of Labor issued a resolution on December 3, 2020 through which it issued a temporary occupation measure and appointed a Special Administrative Board, according to Official Gazette 42,021.
- Subsequently, the Ministry of Food demanded payment from the commercial company Azucarera Río Turbio of 4 million 863 thousand dollars 658 and 50 cents, due to the debt left by the former board of directors who had received subsidies from the Government expressed in raw materials for the manufacture of refined sugar.
- In August 2025, the Political-Administrative Chamber made the decision to revoke the Judicial Overseer and place a replacement suggested by the former owners of the Central Azucarero, which was interpreted as an intention to return the company to the Sigalas. This decision was reflected in ruling 753 published on August 13, 2025.
