“Man is the best of the animals when he has perfected himself, and when he departs from law and justice, the worst of all; because armed injustice is the most dangerous thing; man is born with arms, which he must use with intelligence and weapons, but which he can also use for the worst ends. Therefore, if he be not virtuous, he will be the most impious and savage among the beasts, the most dominated by lasciviousness and gluttony. The Justice is the bond that unites men in cities; for the administration of justice, the determination of what is just, is the principle of order in every political society”.
Aristóteles (384 b.C - 322 b.C)
Excerpts from the Policy, Book One, Chapter One
No, it is not about any town with that German name in Venezuela, although for what happened here for more than 25 years we should think of one with the characteristics of the one that became world famous in Germany. And the truth is that hardly any moderately informed person is unaware of what happened in the city of Nuremberg, Germany, in the middle of the 20th century.
And this is so because the victorious powers of World War II deliberately wanted to leave a deep mark for posterity, so that the crimes committed by Nazi Germany would never be forgotten, even for its own people, by installing in that place the seat of the Tribunal that judged the main perpetrators of the Holocaust. It was in that city where Nazism was born and where the great rallies of Adolf Hitler's party were held, where he and his followers communicated their ideology. It was in Nuremberg where the discriminatory laws against the Jews were promulgated, and on which the Nazis justified the Holocaust.
Then Nuremberg became a symbol for humanity. It became a symbol of the limits where the human being cannot cross, without becoming “the most impious and savage among the beasts”, as the Greek philosopher Aristotle stated so well, more than 300 years before the arrival of Jesus Christ, and when “the administration of justice” and “the determination of what is just” are dislocated from the moment justice falls into the hands of an authoritarian regime.
And perhaps Venezuela could become something similar, in the same direction of Nuremberg, after the expulsion from power of those who in a bad hour of our history came to exercise -and still exercise- the government of our country. And everything points to the fact that this moment is fast approaching, and perhaps we should be prepared for it.
All this came to my mind after listening to the intervention of Dr. Blanca Rosa Mármol de León, Magistrate Emeritus of the Supreme Court of Justice, in the program Arrímate al Mingo of the Mingo TeVe channel, last Tuesday, November 19 (see in Spanish the complete program of Mingo TeVe, Detenciones masivas, libereraciones a cuenta gotas, in https://www.youtube.com/live/NhzJN1D_0Hw?si=kVoxeYO891F-wx8x).
From her masterful speech I wish to highlight two very important parts expressed by Dr. Mármol de León, which should reach all Venezuelans, especially those people who following “superior orders” commit crimes against the Human Rights of Venezuelans. It is worth mentioning here that it was precisely in Nuremberg where it was established for the first time for all humanity, that the excuse of “obeying superior orders” is not valid when committing crimes against Human Rights. This principle was born out of the Nuremberg Tribunal.
The Nuremberg trials demonstrated that each person is responsible for his own acts, even if he acts under orders from a superior: “...the Nuremberg Trials have a transcendental legal and historical significance since they succeeded in institutionalizing individual responsibility before an international tribunal for a new category of crimes” (see in Spanish Scielo, Estudios socio-jurídicos, Hacia una comprensión de los “crímenes contra la humanidad” a partir de Núremberg, in https://tinyurl.com/4nvduwmr). This is the basis for Dr. Mármol's intervention:
“It must be taken into account here and I repeat it and I say it to the prosecutors, to the judges and to the police officers, I am speaking to them at this moment: you are going to respond in a personal capacity. Keep that in mind, when you say that you receive orders. The one who gives the order is also going to respond, it is not that only the one who gives the order is going to respond. And you who obey will also respond. Is it worthwhile to obey and then answer for committing a crime, or is it better to be a judge, to be a prosecutor, to be a police officer, to fulfill your duties, even if you are later removed from office? That is the evaluation that everyone has to make...” (see in Spanish Mingo TeVe, in https://youtu.be/NhzJN1D_0Hw?t=3000).
But even more important, is this part that follows, because every person who commits a crime, and who is currently protected by the regime, will have to respond PERSONALLY for what he has done at some future time, as those who were responsible for Hitler's III Reich, which was supposed to last a thousand years, and who were tried and sentenced in Nuremberg, responded:
“What right does a being , a being have to be in that position, that Judge 3 or 4 or whatever, that should be terminated, by the way, because everyone should be named by their first and last name, right, Judge Marmol de Leon, Judge Erika, right, Judge Domingo, whatever, did this. Why? Because decisions have a signature, and that person is the one who made it, and the one who answers for that. When you make a decision, you are saying, here is a crime committed, there is a guilt of someone who committed it. So we have come to this absurd story that in the Supreme Court they make joint reports, and I say why a joint report? Because they are looking for anonymity! But anonymity does not exist! It is not true! The joint reports or not, everyone signs them, and whoever does not agree has to save his vote, and that is the only way to be exempted from responsibility in that decision. I do not understand why they believe that, since they are anonymous, since their names do not appear, they are exempt from guilt. No. That does not exist. And everybody is going to respond. They are all going to respond personally because the Constitution says so. The Constitution says that the exercise of the public function generates personal responsibility. Personal. It is not the State as an abstract institution. It is each one who responds for what he/she does. And if you considered that you have the right to kill a person to remain in a position that you are not exercising because what you are doing is obeying, well, that has a cost and you are going to pay for that...” (see Mingo TeVe, in https://youtu.be/NhzJN1D_0Hw?t=3209) (resaltado nuestro).
I dare to affirm that the Venezuelan case will be a model to follow for the future of humanity, as was Nuremberg in its time. A country taken over by political and drug-trafficking crime, allied with the worst causes of terrorism and transnational guerrilla warfare, distorted and destroyed the institutional foundations of a modern State, with the consequent holocaust and forced migration of its population. Consequently, what must end up happening in Venezuela must be exactly the same as what happened in Nuremberg: an exemplary judgment that prevents this tragedy from happening again to another State in the world.
And just as the triumphant powers of the time decided to establish a milestone in history with Germany, in the city of Nuremberg, after World War II, in the same way, and with the assistance of the countries that have supported us to end this destructive tragedy that has struck us physically and morally, a Special Criminal Tribunal should be set up in Venezuela, a Special Criminal Tribunal should be established to establish the responsibilities to which there is room, judging and sentencing at all levels, all those who violated our Human Rights and stole the wealth of the citizens of this country, and pursuing throughout the world those who have managed to evade justice.
Certainly, Dr. Mármol de León would be right when she indicates that there would be no need for international trials because we Venezuelans would do them locally:
“They waited so long that it is no longer necessary. There is no longer any need for the pronouncement of the International Criminal Court, because we are going to do it ourselves. We are going to do it here with our autonomous courts when Edmundo Gonzalez is in charge of the Presidency, when we are in the exercise of democracy and we have independence of Powers and we have autonomous judges, then we will not need the complementary justice which is what the International Criminal Court does in the absence of the justice of the country in question. Well, it is no longer necessary, because we will elect another President, in January he will be in charge, and we will reinstitutionalize the country, that is what I think...” (see Mingo TeVe, in https://youtu.be/NhzJN1D_0Hw?t=3658).
My only difference in relation to this approach is that justice cannot wait for the reinstitutionalization of the Venezuelan judicial system, because for there to be a true beginning for our country, it is a fundamental requirement to bring justice as soon as possible to the thousands of Venezuelans who have suffered at the hands of the regime, just as Nuremberg closed that cycle for the world. All this without taking into account that the Venezuelan Courts are destroyed. They were destroyed during 25 years of ignominy, with corrupt judges and officials. A special Tribunal is required to take care of this task when the regime falls, like the one set up in Nuremberg, just at the time and next to the ruins of Nazi Germany.
And it is to that Tribunal that all those mentioned by Dr. Mármol de León in her speech must appear. But there will be those who manage to flee. For them there must be people like Simon Wiesenthal, who dedicated his whole life to not forgetting and hunting them down for justice, so that they would answer for their crimes. That is what I wrote about 12 years ago when I pointed out that this tragedy would end someday, but not without justice: It will end. Sooner or later the regime of Hugo Chavez will fall. His legacy will be a divided nation, a country ruined and indebted to the marrow, an industrial park destroyed, most of our life blood absent because they found other horizons where they could develop as persons and professionals (see in Spanish The example of Simón Wiesenthal, in https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/2012/06/el-ejemplo-de-simon-weisenthal.html). Without being a fortune teller, that is precisely what happened, but it will end....
In conclusion, with my apologies to those who have come this far because of the length of the note, from this modest corner of the web, I formally propose to all Venezuelans and especially to President Edmundo González Urrutia, that the Special Criminal Court described in his mandate be constituted and that Dr. Blanca Rosa Mármol de León preside over it for Venezuela and for the world. Only a person of her personal and professional trajectory in criminal matters, and who enjoys the full confidence of Venezuelans, will be able to mark the Nuremberg milestone for our country, generating the lessons and proposals for humanity so that this Venezuelan tragedy will never be repeated in any other country in the world.
The criminals who destroyed this country can be certain that with Dr. Mármol de León at the head of this Tribunal, they will have the justice they denied to Venezuelans, and the whole country will be able to begin to rebuild itself united and in peace, in the certainty that we will have in justice that principle of Aristotle's order that every political society requires, to make of this country a great Nation.
Caracas, November 22, 2024
Blog:
TIC’s & Derechos Humanos, https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/
Email:
luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
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