Related Judges and Manipulation of the Law: Chavista Court Irregularities That Disqualified María Corina Machado

On Thursday, January 24, the President of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Jorge Rodriguezwas threatened with force Maria Corina Machado. “There is no way for me to be a candidate in any election in Venezuela”he said in a fiery intervention before Chavista lawmakers.

On repeated occasions, the regime warned that the leader of Vente Venezuela (VV), the opposition candidate after his landslide victory in internal elections, would not be part of the next presidential election due this year. However, international pressure and the Barbados Accords have sparked hope that, once and for all, Chavismo will guarantee free and transparent elections.

But the Maduro dictatorship, despite its signed promises and commitments, had other plans.

Rodriguez’s words were nothing more than a preview of what would happen hours later. On Friday the 25th, the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) – friendly to the regime – ratified the political disqualification that already weighed on Maria Corina Machado.

A TSJ that has once again become the center of controversy with this ruling. Once again he was in the service of the regime and turned his back on the Venezuelan constitution. A TSJ that in its creation already violates the provisions of the Magna Carta, because the new members of the Board of Directors do not meet the requirements for holding office.

Article 263 of the Constitution is the one which lists the conditions for serving as a Magistrate of the Supreme Court. In addition to having a Venezuelan nationality by birth, and no other nationality, they must be citizens of recognized honor; Be a lawyer of recognized competence; enjoy a good reputation; Have studied law for at least 15 years and have a university degree in legal affairs; or has been a tenured university professor for at least 15 years; or be or have been a Senior Judge in a specialty corresponding to the Chamber for which he is applying, with at least 15 years in the exercise of a judicial career and with recognized reputation in the performance of his duties; among others.

“They intervened in court, which It was already a messy court“who did not meet the minimum requirements (…) whose judges were not even selected by public competition, but hand-picked by like-minded people,” he explained. Infobay Venezuelan constitutional lawyer Carlos Ramirez Lopez.

“They restructured the court which started with the renewal of directives. The President of the TSJ, who was from the Constitutional Chamber, Gladys Gutierrez, he did not want to sign the sentence and stood aside. That’s why they put CARLISLIA RODRIGUEZA party worker who is doing party advertisements, who has no signs of independence… They put her to that punishment.”he added.

Despite not having much experience in the judicial field, Rodríguez, who served as president of the Electoral Chamber of the TSJ since April 2022, She was appointed president of TSJ in mid-January During the meeting of magistrates that make up the Plenary Chamber, the President of the Social Cassation Chamber, Edgar Gavidia Rodríguez, was ratified as First Vice-President of the Supreme Court, while Tania D’Amelio, former Rector Council of the National Electoral (CNE), Second Vice-President of the Supreme Court and of the Constitutional Chamber was appointed as the President.

Until a few years ago, Rodriguez was part of the ruling party United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which conflicts with the requirements of joining the nation’s highest judiciary. As a Chavista official, she was councilor for Circuit 3 of Libertador Municipality of the Capital District in 2018 and Mayor-in-Charge of Caracas in 2021.

His latest appointment as head of the TSJ comes as Machado’s defense, which has been present at TSJ headquarters for several days, awaits the Supreme Court’s ruling. Disqualification. “I’ve never understood why Maria Corina Machado is a rigged court, not a court of justice, putting her candidacy in the hands of these people and sticking to her commitment to go to that court,” Ramirez Lopez said.

And I add: “They didn’t even let him see the file. A lawyer was visiting the court and they told him that it was being reorganized, and the reorganization was a change of magistrate. In the sentence they argue extra-legal elements, such as Maria Corina Machado will be involved in issues such as Monomeros or Citgo, when she has nothing to do with it.

The Political-Administrative Chamber of the TSJ validated the arguments for approving the leader of Vente Venezuela, whom Chavismo accused of “participating in the corruption conspiracy created by the usurper Juan Antonio Guaido, which led to the criminal blockade of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, as well as corrupt governments.” The open occupation of companies and assets of Venezuelans abroad with collusion.”

Created by TSJ Procedure for challenging invalidity Under pressure from the United States and amid the Barbados agreements between the government and the opposition in a negotiation process mediated by Norway, for those aspiring to run for president in 2024.

Ramirez Lopez also explained that The new judicial authorities “manipulated the TSJ Act itself”.: “Something they are doing in such barbed sentences. In this case it is very relevant because of the decision.”

In that sense he mentioned the method of “joint presentation” Chavista is enforced by judges. As he explained, punishments should be under the jurisdiction of magistrates. In this case there are three that make up the room. However, they established a modality that does not exist in law, which is “joint representation”.

“According to the law of the TSJ, when an action comes, the court meets, and the presentation is assigned to a magistrate. These magistrates prepare a draft presentation, present it to the meeting and it can be unanimously approved -or not-. At times an objection may be raised and it may be clarified in writing (…) But they adopted the method of joint presentation to avoid accepting that responsibility. “Since that change, three magistrates have studied the sentence and written it by hand, so as not to reveal who took responsibility for the decision,” the Venezuelan lawyer said.

This kind of political disqualification, which represents Chavismo’s old weapon for ousting its most important political rivals, They are imposed by the Comptroller’s office.

Ramírez López recalled that the dictatorship used a “false controller” to carry out this action against the opposition leader: “The controller at the time Manuel Galindo Ballesteros. The constitution establishes that he must be approved by the National Assembly to hold office, but Cilia Flores dismissed him. “He spent a year as attorney general, then he stepped down and was appointed comptroller general without the requirements established by the constitution.”

Although in charge of the comptroller’s office, he did not sign the first disqualification, but Antonio Jose Meneses: “He was an unattached officer, not a controller.”

Meneses, who signed Maria Corina Machado’s disqualification on June 30, was later transferred to the National Electoral Council.

Vente, the Venezuelan leader, was disqualified for a year in 2015 after attending a meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) as Panama’s “alternate ambassador” to denounce human rights abuses committed by the Maduro dictator during civil protests. that year. But last year the regime extended that approval Disqualification for 15 years from holding public office, in the midst of campaigning for opposition priorities. Machado, however, did not go to the comptroller’s office at the time because he dismissed the case against him, which he considers arbitrary and illegal to this day.

Despite being disqualified, he ran for office and won 92% of the vote. Now, after upholding his disqualification, he has assured that he will contest the presidential election despite the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice. “I have received an order from the people and we will implement it”He said during an event in Caracas in front of his supporters. “Nicolas Maduro is not going to choose the people’s candidate because the people have already chosen who their candidate is, period.”“

The attack against the opposition leader drew strong international condemnation and the United States issued an ultimatum to Maduro, warning him that he had until April to enable her or, otherwise, it would reinstate sanctions. But the Venezuelan dictator seems to have what he wants: Alex Saab returned to Caracas, and Maria Corina Machado was disqualified. Last Wednesday he participated in the opening of the judicial year, in which, besides highlighting the work of the TSJ, he made it clear that there would be no change in the sentence: “A res judicata, a definitive sentence (…) no one can be above the country and the constitution.