I would like to thank Dr. José
Vicente Haro for his excellent article on Wednesday, June 20, published in this
blog entitled “¿Is the Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice in Exile legitimate and
constitutional? (see in Spanish at http://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/2018/06/es-legitimo-y-constitucional-el.html). I generally only refer to those materials that I
consider relevant to support any argument. However, the subject is so
transcendental that I preferred to publish directly the explanation sent to me
by Dr. Haro, with an explanatory note.
However, this is not enough. I
believe it is necessary to address several aspects that revolve around what I
will call “the phenomenon of the Legitimate TSJ” and that are related to the
attacks that this institution is receiving from various sources.
Indeed, as I mentioned in the explanatory
note prior to Dr. Haro's article, a campaign is being launched to discredit the
legitimate TSJ operating in exile, which is paradoxically emerging from local
"influencers" linked to the official opposition: why is this
happening? What is the real meaning of this? Why, if the opposition itself
appointed them in the National Assembly, and then abandoned them to their fate,
is they now being attacked by mummification, dismissing their decisions or,
worse still, not complying with them?
This is a complex situation that
could be considered a natural consequence of the serious process of political
decomposition that is taking place in Venezuela and that runs parallel to the
final spasms of a way of doing politics in our country for much, much longer
than the Chavista revolution has. And something that, in my opinion, is the
precise bottom line of the problem: since there has never been a real
separation of powers in Venezuela, what is happening with the Magistrates in
exile, who have had to survive and do
the work of collaborating to bring the dictatorship out of Venezuela, is
showing us in an unprecedented way, a collateral perspective that we had never
imagined: a Judicial Power without ties.
Although it is true that the
magistrates in exile were proposed by the different political factors of the
National Assembly to occupy these high positions - as always happened - an
unusual phenomenon is taking place: no political leader like Ramos Allup,
Borges, Barboza would dare to pick up a telephone to demand anything from any
magistrate, after having left them exposed to being massacred by the lions of
this Roman circus of the red-red revolution.
Politicians mistakenly believed that
the magistrates would be dispersed in exile and that the issue of those judges
legitimately appointed to replace the "express" magistrates of the
previous National Assembly would reach that point. And they were wrong. The
persecuted Magistrates made a monumental effort to survive in exile, and with
the help of many anonymous people have managed to articulate themselves outside
the country to deliver legitimate justice. That leaves out the harmful and
toxic influence of some parties that think they own the judges because they
were nominated by them or owe them that position.
How interesting! This situation has
given Venezuelans a Tribunal that only has to do what the Constitution and the
law require of them: impartial and conscientious justice, which is the
foundation and cornerstone of the rule of law. But that is only the product of
the unprecedented effort of the Magistrates of the current legitimate TSJ in
exile, so I believe that the Nation will owe them an imperishable recognition
for that.
However, this collateral phenomenon
described does not yet correct the structural situation. One day, which I hope
will be very soon, Venezuela will return to normal and the Magistrates will
have to return to Venezuela to occupy their natural positions. And once again,
those magistrates who are now acting independently and those who will replace
them in the future will be immersed in the harmful and toxic environment of the
"as usual" politics of Venezuela, where the influence of politicians
on the decisions of judges and magistrates is commonplace. That is why now is
the time to make the decisions that will lead us to guarantee the INDEPENDENCE
of the Judicial Power. That candy we are now savoring will end when everything
begins to be what it used to be. And
we cannot allow that from civil society.
Do you think there would have been a
historic ruling like the one that emerged on June 13, 2018 from the Electoral
Chamber of the legitimate Supreme Court of Justice, declaring the nullity of
the CNE's Automated Voting and Counting System for the election of the
positions of popular representation of the public authorities and other
elections, if the Magistrates had been subject to the influence of the
political parties within Venezuela? Never! The parties are still interested in
inheriting this corrupt electoral system from the castro-chavismo-madurismo for
their own ends.
Hence, many people wrinkled their
faces when they heard about the decision of the legitimate Supreme Court in
their electoral chamber, and are terrified of what else they might decide. They
do not feel comfortable with a TSJ that acted "freely" and without
their control, and are desperately trying to influence the Magistrates,
threatening to ignore decisions that they might take, such as the one we are
currently taking in the Constitutional Chamber requesting the appointment of a
National Emergency Government (see complete application in Spanish at https://tinyurl.com/y7x87ldb), given the very serious crisis that exists in the
country and that the official opposition is not enduring any more delays, such
as those that the official opposition wants to impress upon it once again,
trying to convince Venezuelans to attend the electoral circus, now illegal,
next December that the CNE is calling for precisely because of the ruling of
the Electoral Chamber of the legitimate Supreme Court of Justice.
Now it turns out that the politicians
are trying to ignore the decisions that the magistrates are fully entitled to
take because "they are not suited to their political aims, and that they
believe these people? We, the citizens, are the ones who come to these
instances because they are not doing the work we have entrusted them with. And
now, by right, we are exercising our citizens' prerogative to demand an
Emergency Government because Maduro and his regime are murdering Venezuelans.
Do you now understand why paid
"experts" are appearing to disregard the validity of the legitimate
TSJ in exile? That is why we Venezuelans must handle ourselves with our own
criteria and know what is happening so as not to fall into the trap of those
who want to continue to subjugate the population in the same way they have done
for years, and who are now playing the game of "take off your hands to get
me" with the regime but without changing the rules of the game. Had it not
been for citizen pressure from an outraged population they would not have
approved Maduro's impeachment in the National Assembly, that is the unfortunate
reality.
The Judiciary is the one that
determines the balance of power in the States. The fundamental contribution of
the Founding Fathers of the American nation had to do precisely with these
ideas. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) contributed in the American Declaration of
Independence that the powers of governments derive from their citizens. This
single idea is the one that prevails in countries where the rights of their
citizens are respected, and it is the one that challenges us from civil society
to promote the changes that are necessary to control the power that the rulers
have. John Adams (1735-1826) defined that this should be done "within the
law". As a historical reference,
Adams is the American leader who said that a Republic should be a government of
laws and not a government of men.
James Madison (1751-1836), for his part, conceived the constitutional
text as the one that limits the power of the authorities, because his permanent
concern was the abuse of power. "Madison realizes very early on that the
essence of government is power and that every man has within himself, as well
as many positive qualities, a temptation, a predisposition to abuse power, we
all know that. (see in Spanish De Padres Principios y Partidos, at http://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/2014/09/de-padres-principios-y-partidos.html).
Another of
the American Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), was the author
of the idea of the Magistrates' life tenure which he defended with the
following argument: "The judiciary
is the weakest of the three state bodies, because it does not have the military
power that the executive body has, nor the power to dispose of the public
treasury and to enact laws, which the legislative power has. It only possesses
the power to judge; but with such power it cannot defend itself from the attack
of other organisms. One way to avoid such an attack is to ensure that judges
who are of good character cannot be dismissed, and thus have the independence
to judge the constitutional legality or otherwise of the acts of other State
bodies" (see On Lifetime Judges, Luis Enrique Pérez at https://ar-ar.facebook.com/notes/luis-e-perez-e/logos-sobre-jueces-vitalicios/403297803139124/).
These
lessons of the world's most perfected democracy are open to any citizen who
wants real change in his country. So, if we do not understand that we must have
a judiciary that puts limits on the power and is truly independent, we will
never recover the Republic. Not now that there's a dictatorship or after we get
the country back. And that is what the need is for this National Emergency
Government, once it has been established, to have the obligation to convene the
Original Constituent Assembly to re-institutionalize the Republic to face this
challenge. I am sure the Magistrates in exile know that, but so do we as
conscious citizens. May
God be with you in your decisions.
Caracas,
June 23, 2018
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
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