By Luis Manuel Aguana
When the National Assembly began
with the issue of the Amnesty Law, I had a bad feeling. What were they doing?
What was the real intention behind the Bill beyond what is stated in the
proposed text itself, to achieve that "civil and military officials who
collaborate in the restitution of the Constitutional Order in
Venezuela...". So many blows make Venezuelans suspicious. They already
approved it in the first discussion on January 22, 2019 (see news from the
National Assembly in http://www.asambleanacional.gob.ve/noticias/_an-aprobo-en-primera-discusion-ley-de-amnistia and see the law in http://www.asambleanacional.gob.ve/noticias/_ley-de-amnistia-y-garantias).
And my
first mistrust came because if Article 333 provides for the obligation of all
Venezuelans, invested or not with authority, to collaborate with the
restoration of the full force of the constitution - in other words, everyone -
does it make any sense to encourage those who have committed crimes since 1999
and for whom our constitution has lost its force, so that with that incentive
they effectively comply with it? In other words, are we making a law to
encourage with oblivion the crimes of those who without any payment have the
constitutional obligation to rescue the constitutional validity? Is that it?
According
to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy the term "Amnesty"
refers to "1. F. Forgiveness of certain types of crimes, which extinguish
the responsibility of their perpetrators "(see RAE, Amnesty, in https://dle.rae.es/?id=2NBrKLC). In other words, for there to be an amnesty
or pardon that extinguishes the responsibility of its perpetrators, there must
first be a penalty for a crime committed for which the perpetrators are paying.
If not, how else is an amnesty understood? This is simple elementary logic. I
am astonished to see that the Assembly proposes a law to say I forgive them',
without specifying what is being forgiven here, if they comply with the constitution.
It's uphill, isn't it?
That's why
we Venezuelans raised our voice of indignation indicating that it smelled like
negotiation. Otherwise, how could it be understood that because some military
or civilian of the regime passed "to the side of democracy and
freedom," his crimes were forgiven without knowing what they were? Let's
see an example: Rafael Ramírez, the grim character who destroyed PDVSA and is
being sought out by the same regime (see https://www.el-carabobeno.com/documento-vincula-a-rafael-ramirez-con-delitos-contra-sector-petrolero/) and enjoys outside the
country the mega-millions of dollars stolen from Venezuelans, would he be a
candidate for that "amnesty" law if he went to the right side? Would
he be allowed to return to Venezuela after Maduro's departure?
Would it not
be better if, once Nicolas Maduro's regime had fallen, and all those responsible
for this horrific tragedy had been caught or requested, they were duly
prosecuted and sentenced, then on a case-by-case basis, to decide in a
specially designated Ad-Hoc Tribunal, such as the Nuremberg Tribunal, who has
and who does not have the right to an amnesty, in accordance with their
cooperation with the justice system? That is what citizens must ask themselves!
And I
emphasize Ramirez's case because this innocent pigeon is casually announcing
that he will run for the presidency (see news in Tal Cual, en http://talcualdigital.com/index.php/2019/01/31/rafael-ramirez-candidato-chavismo/). Don't you think that's
very suspicious? I think that Members of the AN would have to explain to us on
a case-by-case basis who would be the subject of that amnesty. We are not
talking here about a red-red PDVSA clerk who stole a computer, confessed to it
and we forgive him. No. We are talking about a person capable of covering half
the National Assembly with dollars in order to become a candidate in a future
government consensual with "chavismo light". Do you realize what I am
talking about?
That's why
I think that this law is just another trap for characters like Rafael Ramírez
and others like him to form part of this new Venezuela that is beginning to
take shape. But it is also an extremely dangerous initiative if it is executed
in that way, for the stability of a next transitional government, because that
dirty money would buy the most unimaginable wills, which would twist any
attempt to straighten the country, and in favor of a return of chavismo without
Chavez.
And this leads me to raise the issue
of forgiveness but from the perspective of those who are the ones who will
suffer that in their own flesh when it has been given. I could not remotely say
it, much less understand it, because I have not suffered their tragedy. Dr.
Ing. José Méndez who, in a recent communication, tells us Venezuelans to ask
ourselves what the real victims would feel as a result of the Amnesty Law:
"Let these
politicians of Chavismo light, who promote new dialogues, arrangements,
agreements, etc., ask:
All the victims of the
RED snipers of April 11, the 19 dead and the many wounded by the merciless
cruelty of the leadership of Castro Narco Comunismo;
Let them ask the
officials, INOCENT commissars, about the events of April 11. To the officials
who are still paying penalties, BEING INNOCENT, even having paid the full
penalty. Ask the family of commissioners Henry Vivas and Lázaro Forero;
Let them ask Ivan
Simonovis, still a prisoner at home, his wife Bony, their children, their
relatives;
Let them ask Cruz
María Baduel, wife of General Raúl Isaías Baduel, his children Miguel, Isaí and
the whole Baduel family;
Ramón Antonio Losada
Saavedra, his wife and children;
Ask the relatives of
the dozens killed and wounded by the explosion at the Amuay refinery on August
25, 2012, the relatives of those killed and wounded in INEXCUSABLE accidents,
within PDVSA and the state-owned companies and the many confiscated companies;
Ask the children,
wife and relatives of Franklin Brito, who died in the custody of regime
henchmen on August 30, 2010 on the premises of the Military Hospital... To those children threatened even after his
murder;
Ask the relatives of the victims/heroes
MASACRADOS in real time, on Monday, January 15, 2018: Oscar Alberto Pérez, Jairo
(Toby) Lugo Ramos and Abraham Lugo Ramos (sons of Christian leader Jairo Lugo),
Abraham Israel Agostino Agostino, Daniel Enrique Soto, José Alejandro Díaz
Pimentel, Lisbeth Andreina Ramírez Mantilla ... In parentheses, Maduro boastfully stated before the media, on December
19, 2017: "...Wherever they appear, I have ordered the Armed Forces! PLOMO
with terrorist groups! ! LEAD with them compadre!.... Zero tolerance...".
How painful! Let us not allow that false amnesty that the official
opposition is suspiciously proposing to us, if that law is approved in those
terms.
There will hardly be a new Venezuela without justice. We want to
reconcile but with a Venezuela that believed from the heart that things would
change for the better after 1998 from the hands of a military coup plotter, and
now they are truly repentant. Not with those who stole it and destroyed it and
now pretend through artifices negotiated in the dark with the money they took,
to survive what is to come. That is why we must first go through a Court that
imparts that justice for everything that has happened, with the Truth ahead,
and decides a true amnesty, if it is justified, to those who believe they
deserve it so that we can live together in peace.
Caracas, February 3,
2019
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
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