By Luis Manuel Aguana
By empire of
the Constitution Deputy Juan Guaidó is from the first minute of today January
10, 2019, Constitutional President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Charged by constitutional order. Article 233 of the Constitution is clear: "...When the absolute absence of the
President-elect occurs before taking office, a new universal, direct and secret
election shall be held within the following thirty consecutive days. While the
new President is being elected and takes office, the President of the National
Assembly shall be in charge of the Presidency of the Republic”.
Consequently, no agreement by
Parliament appointing the President-in-Office of the Council has been reached
because the corresponding legal extremes have been given in the face of the
"absolute lack of the President-elect", which is precisely the case
of Venezuelans. Nicolás Maduro Moros was tried and sentenced and as if that
were not enough his election is not recognized by the countries that make up
the Lima Group, so there is Absolute Absence of the President-elect before the
fact of elections not recognized nationally and internationally.
If to this we add respectable
opinions such as those of former Attorney General of the Republic, Jesus Petit
Da Costa, in his article entitled "Guaidó amanecerá el 1OE como encargado
de la Presidencia de la República" (see in Spanish http://jesuspetitdacosta.blogspot.com/2019/01/guaido-amanecera-el-10e-como-encargado.html) and those of former UN Ambassador
Diego Arria (see https://twitter.com/Diego_Arria/status/1083211653854969856) where he argues that Guaidó's
Presidency occurs automatically, here is a picture of inevitable confrontation
in the country and of an outcome that perhaps did not believe that those who
organized the National Assembly to run the wrinkle of the regime with the so
announced Statute for the Transition would have closer.
In my last note (see Next at bat, Legitimate
TSJ, at https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_73.html) stressed that the National
Assembly had suspended with that agreement the application of Article 233 of
the constitutional text, arguing that "that norm was designed for
situations of institutional normality, in which the decisions of the National
Assembly are respected and abided by those who exercise the power of force under
the rule of law: the National Armed Forces and State security organs" (see
full text of the Draft "STATUT LAW REGULATING THE TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY
AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VALIDITY OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE BOLIVARIAN
REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA" in https://tinyurl.com/ydbyeb87). In other words, compliance with
the Constitution is conditioned according to the criteria of the jurists who
drafted it. In this case, if we don't have the strength to apply the principles
of law, then we don't comply with the constitution, how about that?
In this way the deputies seem to be
willing to turn their backs on the Constitution. But will that be so? In my
last note I did not contemplate in the analysis that Guaidó had no alternative.
I don't think he even imagined himself to be in the middle of this hurricane.
Because according to the criteria exposed, that predicament was part of the
attributions that came with the post if he wanted to accept the Presidency of
the National Assembly.
Either Guaidó complies with the
Constitution or resigns, giving way to another who does. And that is what
brings me to the point of this note. My past analysis did not include an
important fact that could change the course of events: the constitutional norm
is obligatory to comply, even if he does not want to, and makes Juan Guaidó a
prisoner of the political agreements of the majority fractions, which would
cause a paralysis of his performance as a high public official, which would be
intolerable in the eyes of Venezuelans.
I had indicated that he would never
go against the leaders of the parties that put him there, but in the face of
the dilemma of not complying with the Constitution, things get different. The
Lima Group, in urging Maduro to "respect the powers of the National
Assembly and provisionally transfer executive power to it until new democratic
presidential elections are held" (see Communiqué of the Lima Group, at https://elnuevopais.net/2019/01/04/el-grupo-de-lima-no-reconocera-el-nuevo-periodo-del-regimen-de-maduro-comunicado/) screw Guaidó to receive that
responsibility. Will that coalition of parties be willing to ignore that
resolution of the Lima Group that gives full support to the National Assembly
and the Supreme Court of Legitimate Justice in exile to do the constitutionally
correct?
If the
parties that took him to the Presidency of the National Assembly and Guaidó
himself consequently do not know his own condition as President in Charge of
the Republic by the rule of the Constitution, it is better for them not to wait
for the regime to close the Parliament, they would be doing it themselves,
leaving the way free for the legitimate TSJ to proceed to the designation of a National
Emergency Government to fill the vacancy left by the omission of the
parliament, already "self-suicided" by its own clumsiness.
But if Juan Guaidó himself rises above that politicking that has done so
much damage to us and above those who have placed him in that predicament,
recognizing the truly historic moment that the country is living and his own
life as a politician, being by the force of circumstances, and like no other
Venezuelan, at the right time and in the right place to provide a service to
his country, then we can say that he deserves to be called President of the
Republic and will have the decisive support of all the Venezuelan people.
Caracas, January 10,
2019
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
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