Comply with the ruling that declares a constitutional void in Venezuela

Carlos Sánchez Berzaín
July 10, 2018 

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) Ratifying the “constitutional void in the National Executive Branch”, Venezuela’s Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ in Spanish) has issued, on July 2nd of 2018, a ruling instructing, “the National Assembly from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to proceed to fill the constitutional void of the Republic’s Presidency until new presidential elections can take place”.   To comply with this ruling means that the National Assembly designates a President of Venezuela, and for the international community once and for all to accept that Nicolas Maduro and his regime do not represent Venezuela and that whomever continues to have a relationship with, or be contracted by Maduro, does so at their own risk of disavowing the validity of any act of complicity with the Organized Crime’s dictatorship.

In the “Castroist Chavist” dictatorial Venezuela, only two legal and legitimate institutions have survived and these are; the National Assembly, elected in the elections of December 6^th of 2015 for a period of five years starting on January 5^th of 2016, and the Supreme Court of Justice, designated and sworn in on July of 2017 “to do justice on behalf of the Republic”.

The National Assembly has been turned into sort of a hostage of the dictatorship given that its members and political parties are; restrained in the dictatorship’s cage, divided, persecuted, subjected to extortion and terror of the Castroist methodology.  Some resist audaciously while others have been coopted into a “functional opposition”. Maduro’s regime with its criminal “Constituent Assembly” has rebuffed and supplanted the National Assembly, yet it continues recognizing its importance in order to manipulate the dialogue.

Venezuela’s Supreme Court of Justice is comprised of 33 members elected for a twelve-year term, which initiated on July 21^st of 2017. Article 254 of Venezuela’s constitution establishes that “the Judicial Branch is independent and the Supreme Court of Justice shall have functional, financial, and administrative autonomy”. Persecuted by the dictator Nicolas Maduro, however, the 33 members of the Supreme Court of Justice were forced into exile from where they continue to function, exercise jurisdiction and ample competency, with expressed international recognition from the Organization of American States (OAS), the European Parliament, countries such as; Panama, Chile, Colombia, and the United States (where its members now reside), from governments comprising the “Group of Lima” and international organizations. 

The illegality and illegitimacy of Nicolas Maduro and his regime have been denounced politically and in the courts by the National Assembly and the Supreme Court of Justice, but the regime persists committing crimes to sustain its de-facto power, which have been exposed in four reports on Venezuela issued by the OAS’ General Secretary that have created the “Almagro Doctrine”. They have been repudiated by the Venezuelan people in massive protests that have been responded with crime and massacres by the dictator and through their absenteeism at the electoral farce staged by the dictatorship this past May 20^th. The resolution of the 48^th General Assembly of the OAS on June 5^thof 2018, has confirmed the regime’s condition that has been corroborated by sanctions from the governments of Canada, the United States, and the European Union.

In this context and in strict utilization of the “Rule of Law” there is now the “legal order”, the “legitimate legal instrument” to end Nicolas Maduro’s dictatorial regime. We only have to comply with the ruling of July 2^ndof 2018 issued by Venezuela’s Supreme Court of Justice:

– The governments of the Americas, the OAS, the European Parliament, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, all international organizations and institutions, have the obligation to suspend and immediately declare as “inexistent, the representation of Nicolas Maduro and his regime”.  They are being served notice of the ruling, because the final part of said ruling dictates so.

– Venezuela’s National Assembly has the obligation to designate a President of Venezuela, or a professional collegiate body, to perform those functions in order to have presidential elections that are “free, fair, based on universal suffrage principles, and secret”. The President, or professional collegiate body, designated by the National Assembly shall be immediately acknowledged and protected by the States of the Americas, the OAS, and the international community, replacing amply the supplanting functions that Nicolas Maduro and his regime exercise today.

Published in Spanish by Diario las Américas e Infobae on Sunday July 8th, 2018