Needed initiatives prior to swearing-in of Gonzalez Urrutia as President of Venezuela

Carlos Sánchez Berzaín
October 19, 2024

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) The dictatorship from Venezuela introduces to the world the most irrational transition period between the 28th of July (28-J) election and the swearing-in of President-Elect Edmundo Gonzales Urrutia this upcoming 10th of January, with the use of repression and State-terrorism as a last recourse to retain power. The criminal actions of 21st Century Socialism in Venezuela seek to instill fear amongst the population to discourage compliance with their electoral victory, to force a new wave of migration, disorganize the opposition’s leadership, and eliminate -either politically or physically- Maria Corina Machado. This situation demands the generation of initiatives and to install and activate the transition.

In the Castrochavist’s terror strategy that uses State-terrorism, the dismantling of the triumphant electoral and political opposition is underway. All leaders are persecuted, many have been imprisoned and are subject to torture, others have been detained at the Argentinean embassy in Caracas, others have gone to exile. The President-Elect is protected in Europe and the opposing leader Maria Corina Machado has been forced to go underground in clandestinity in Venezuelan territory.

The objective of 21st Century Socialism is to figuratively behead the leadership of the triumphant opposition, to leave Venezuelan people void of a leader whom to follow. They seek to make the real opposition inoperable to make way to a “functional” opposition, discouraging all voters who on 28-J expressed their repudiation of Nicolas Maduro and the narco-State’s dictatorship he represents.

This irrational scenario ratifies, as a victorious strategy, that President-Elect Edmundo Gonzales Urrutia be protected in Europe and that María Corina Machado from her clandestinity in Venezuelan territory be defiant to State-terrorism. During the almost three months remaining until the 10th of January of 2025, this scenario also highlights the need for initiatives, excluding the use of violence, to place at the forefront of democracy the transition process leading to the swearing-in of Gonzales Urrutia as the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and beyond.

The way to defend and ensure compliance with the 28-J victory is to publicly and notoriously use the mechanisms of democracy. Venezuelans must be informed that actions taken by their leaders are aimed to ensuring compliance with the people’s sovereign will, and for the international community to go along with the new political power of Venezuela. It is about Gonzalez Urrutia and Machado -starting now- to identify and present the chain of command, and starting on 10 January -with concrete governmental actions- they execute the regaining of freedom and democracy in Venezuela.

The transition period is the prelude of a government’s plan to recover democracy. It is not an ordinary administrative or managerial plan because it deals with the recovery of the essential components of democracy, it deals with a process of rebuilding national unity without impunity and the quickest recovery of conditions of normalcy. For the victorious opposition to place underway an open and public transition agenda is important under normal conditions, but is indispensable when the defeated dictatorship resists to turnover the government through the use of State-terrorism.

The very first step, amongst the needed initiatives, is to name and activate a “transition team” empowered with national and international competence comprised by commissions of three or more members in the areas of Foreign Affairs, Defense, Interior or Government, Economy, Oil, Education, and more.

Article 236, Section 20 of Venezuela’s constitution grants the President the power of “establishing the number, organization, competence of ministries and other organizations of the National Public Administration, as well as the organization and functioning of the “Council of Ministers. . .,” reasons why it becomes very important for Gonzalez Urrutia and Machado to identify and install this organization that is the foundation of administration and governance. There are several forms of ministerial organization and competencies, but without a doubt, the dictatorship’s form of doing this cannot be continued and the incoming government will have to consider the suitability of a Prime Minister, Premier, or Chief of Staff.

The defeated dictatorship has imposed a system of faked legality, approving, and applying laws, resolutions, and rules that are “despicable laws” that I define as those that “in their form or content violate human rights and/or basic individual liberties.” It is of utmost importance that during the transition period, as one of the very first acts of the new government and in accordance with Article 138 of Venezuela’s Constitution that declares “all usurped authority is ineffective and its acts are null and void,” these laws be identified, classified, and revealed to the Venezuelan people and to the world, for them to be declared null and void.

The transition team has authority by the legitimacy that the 28-J victory grants it and must begin to request accountability and reports from the regime’s government officials reminding them that Article 139 of Venezuela’s Constitution mandates “The exercise of governmental power entails individual responsibility for any abuse, deviation of power, or violation of the Constitution or the law.” And more. . .

This is not about attempting to negotiate with the already cornered Nicolas Maduro and the transnational dictatorship that occupies Venezuela, the electoral victory of 28-J must now be executed with democratic initiatives.

*Attorney & Political Scientist. Director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy.

Translation from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas

Published in Spanish by infobae.com Sunday October 13, 2024