To any attentive follower of the Venezuelan reality, perhaps the first
thing that comes to mind when talking about a political change in our country
is, on what legitimacy can any new government to come in Venezuela be mounted?
Because let's see, if tomorrow the illegitimate regime currently ruling
Venezuela collapses for whatever reason, the first thing that must appear,
somewhere, is the legitimate basis on which to base any next government.
And any of you will tell me, well, the elections of July 28, 2024 gave Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia (EGU) the victory, with minutes in hand, with which he could then come to Venezuela and without problems be sworn in to exercise his government, based on the votes expressed that day, and whose evidence is found in the minutes safeguarded in a vault in Panama . That is assuming that he can still do so, if he did not do so on January 10, 2025, the date he was constitutionally entitled to do so, despite the debate on a possible constitutional absence. But let's assume for now that he still can.
This act of swearing-in, clearly civilian, must obviously have the
support of the Armed Forces (something that has not yet happened and is still
being sought incessantly by the opposition, and although it is a fundamental
requirement for it to happen, it is not the subject of this note) and be
carried out in front of a legitimately elected National Assembly, something
that does not exist in Venezuela.
Some will say that the National Assembly of 2015, the last one that enjoyed the necessary legitimacy condition, is still in office. Unfortunately, and despite the fact that the so-called Assembly of 2015 “self-proclaimed” itself in office after the end of its 5-year constitutional term, it can hardly be considered legitimate by anyone outside the country, considering that such condition in the context of our republican system, only comes from the votes emanating from the Venezuelan people in free and transparent elections. And read here that we are stretching the concept that the presidential elections of 2024 have such condition, thus considering that EGU is the legitimate President Elect of Venezuela. But let us continue searching for the lost legitimacy.
In the absence of a legitimate National Assembly, the 1999 Constitution
in force provides that the President Elect may also be sworn in before the
Supreme Court of Justice: "Article
231: The elected candidate shall take possession of the office of President of
the Republic on January 10th of the first year of his or her constitutional
term, by taking the oath before the National Assembly. If for any reason the
President of the Republic cannot take office before the National Assembly,
he/she shall do so before the Supreme Court of Justice".
As already indicated, on this point EGU failed to comply with Article 231 by not being sworn in on the date indicated in the Constitution, even if it was for reasons beyond his control. To this we add that in Venezuela there is no legitimate Supreme Court of Justice, because all the Justices of that highest Court resigned en masse before the illegitimate National Constituent Assembly convened by Nicolás Maduro Moros on May 1, 2017 and were sworn in before that illegitimate instance.
This event gave the opportunity to the TSJ Magistrates appointed that
year by the legitimate National Assembly of that time, exiled and persecuted by
the regime, to constitute themselves at the headquarters of the Organization of
American States (OAS) in Washington, in what was called the legitimate Supreme
Court of Justice (TSJ) in exile.
However, the National Assembly elected in 2015, during its entire constitutional period of 5 years, never gave them formal recognition as the legitimate High Court of the country, nor did the Interim Government of Juan Guaidó, nor the US authorities, being relegated only as exiled TSJ Magistrates and without any institutional support, not even economic, despite the great efforts made by them in dictating outside Venezuela unique and important sentences for all.
Some insisted at the time that the President Elect could have been sworn
in before this Court in exile, but unfortunately this Court was also unknown
and despised in that condition by the political opposition of the MCM and the
President Elect himself. It is not surprising that the latter was so, given that
it was from the MUD/PU the card from which the President-Elect emerged, and who
in the first place disowned them as the legitimate TSJ in exile.
If the same National Assembly of 2015 did not even consider them, not as Supreme Court of Justice in exile, but in their own condition of Magistrates appointed by themselves and persecuted by the regime, little could the rest of Venezuelans expect that other nations could consider them valid to legitimize the swearing in of a new President of the Republic that could be recognized by the International Community.
As will be seen, then, there is a huge institutional gap that has not
yet been closed, since there is no public power in Venezuela that legitimizes
an elected President going around the world. And what is clear to everyone is
that this gap must be solved in legitimate terms for the whole world, inside
and outside Venezuela, so that a legitimate transition in our country can be
considered valid for international counterparts. At least on April 11, 2002, all
institutions were legitimate and Hugo Chávez Frías could leave the government
with a legitimate constitutional succession that could not be effective for the
reasons we all know.
Unfortunately, those who led that historic event were not up to the political circumstances of that time, and in their infinite clumsiness they wasted not only the greatest demonstration of rejection of a government in the history of Venezuela -and perhaps of the world-, but worse still, the spilled blood of all Venezuelans who have sacrificed themselves for the freedom of our country since that day.
Those of us who have advocated for the calling of a constituent process
of an original nature in Venezuela, do not do so only because of the need to
restructure the Social Pact that governs the infamous current relationship
between the rulers and the ruled, and that is materialized in a new
Constitution, but as seekers of the lost legitimacy of the country, we consider
that at this point the only way to find that legitimacy to anything that comes
before that immense gap of the serious lack of legitimate institutions on which
to make any government rest after this tragedy, is by reuniting the Constituent
and re-founding the Nation.
We are talking about going back to the very basis of the construction of a modern State, summoning the representatives of the Original Power -from absolutely all the political tendencies currently in confrontation- to decide not only on a transitional government to take care of the day-to-day running of a destroyed Venezuela, but also on the development model to be applied for a new Social Pact in the future, controlling at the same time the course of events that will take place thereafter. It is not easy what we are proposing to the country, because this merits that the main political protagonists review their mineralized and confrontational positions, yielding, in some cases, promises that are impossible to make come true in the current international context, if they are really thinking about the welfare of the people they claim to defend.
Let us hope that the search for lost legitimacy does not happen to the
seekers of the lost ark in the famous movie, who, even having found it, ended
up in a basement, as if it had never existed. The difference in our case is
that we urgently need to find that legitimacy in order to get someone to give
us a helping hand to get out of the hole we are in. And that will be impossible
if not even those who are fighting today for a change in the state of affairs
of the country still believe that it is unnecessary to find it. Although it may
sound presumptuous to say it, perhaps the first step is for them to understand
it first...
Caracas, June 20, 2025
Blog:
TIC’s & Derechos Humanos, https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
X (Twitter): @laguana
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