Constitution, Law & Judiciary

The September 18, 2008 Human Rights Watch report, “A Decade Under Chavez,” raises a few problems with regard to the protection of political rights in Venezuela, but the few places where it is on target are almost completely drowned in a sea of de-contextualization, trumped-up accusations, and a clear and obvious bias in favor of the opposition and against the government.

A close reading of the recent Human Rights Watch "Report" on Venezuela reveals an astonishing number of blatant falsifications and outright fabrications, glaring deletions of essential facts, deliberate omissions of key contextual and comparative considerations and especially a cover-up of systematic long-term, large-scale security threats to Venezuelan democracy posed by Washington.

An interview with Fernando Ramón Vegas Torrealba, justice of the Venezuelan Supreme Court, who talks about the role of the law and legal system in the new Venezuela.

The following is a translation of a document produced by the Venezuelan Ministry for Communication and Information. It is a summary of the content of the 26 laws passed by the National Executive and also seeks to debunk some of the myths spread by the opposition.

Human Rights Watch focuses on the issues of political discrimination, the separation of powers, and the media in Venezuela, but misrepresents the realities of all three, taking what are at best isolated incidents and portraying them as common occurrences.

Chavez critics don't explain Venezuelan law or how Supreme Court rulings interpret it. Nor do they report how the Enabling Law works, that the nation's Constitution authorizes it, that four other presidents used it, among many other things. How can they? It would expose their false accusations and discredit their entire argument.

Sections of the Venezuelan opposition are opposing a decision by Venezuela’s Comptroller General, who has submitted a list of 386 individuals to be banned from standing for public office for (being guilty of) corruption and/or misuse of public funds. In fact, the Comptroller General is merely implementing existing legislation — a great deal of which precedes the Chavez government.

Since December, three Venezuelans and a Uruguayan have been detained in Miami without bail. Their alleged crime involves the supposed cover-up of the delivery of money between the Venezuelan and Argentine governments. Does it sound like something the U.S. justice system should be involved in? Probably not. Even worse, the U.S. case is sort of laughable.

The Venezuelan government's effort to create "21^st century socialism" is moving ahead full-steam. While tensions and confusion about the reform are rising in Venezuela, it is important to realize that this reform will mean both less and more than most outside observers seem to think.

Only an understanding of the political project that Chavez plans to develop in the country, and the specific political, economic, and social structure that it entails, allows us to fit the constitutional reform into the larger context and understand the real role it plays in laying the groundwork for the future plans of the Chavez government.