The Chavista Parliament continues to delay the election of the new judges of the Supreme Court of Justice

The National Assembly of Venezuela (AN, Parliament), with a Chavista majority, has “unjustifiably” delayed the election process of the new judges of the Supreme Court of Justice, whose appointment was postponed on March 25.

“The official NA unjustifiably delays the process of electing the judges who will make up the Supreme Court of Justice, as well as the appointment of the director of the School of the Magistracy and the Inspector General of Courts,” the local NGO Access to Justice denounced on Wednesday on its Twitter account.

In this regard, the organization indicated that the reform of the Venezuelan Supreme Court “was progressing at full steam”, after the adoption, in an “express and unanimous manner”, of the reform to the Organic Law of the TSJ that had been proposed by the president of this body, Maikel Moreno, but which since the postponement of the election, on March 25, has been postponed the designation.

He explained that, after this date, “the AN has modified at least eight times the call for the ordinary session to be held within 5 continuous days after receipt of the list sent by the Committee for the Evaluation of Nominations of the Citizen Power”, for the election of judges.

Access to Justice recalled that by not making the new call to deal with the issue, Parliament violates articles 38 and 74 of the TSJ Organic Law and its provisions that “at the same time impose the holding of the call 3 days in advance and the requirement of a qualified majority of 2/3 of its members”.

“If this qualified majority is not achieved in three sessions, the National Assembly must convene a fourth session in which a simple majority of its members will suffice to appoint the new judges of the TSJ, in accordance with article 74” of the TSJ Organic Law, recalled the NGO.

However, the AN convened a session for this Wednesday in which, so far, the appointment of the 20 judges of the TSJ is not included in the agenda.

Following the reform of the Organic Law of the TSJ, the number of judges making up the high court was reduced from 32 to 20.

The Constitutional Chamber will be composed of five magistrates and the remaining five (Electoral, Political-Administrative, Civil Cassation, Criminal Cassation and Social Cassation) by three judges, according to the proposed law reform, as opposed to the seven and five, respectively, that they currently have.

In a striking tirade against the head of one of the branches of government, the ultrachavist Pedro Carreño, a deputy of Venezuela's National Constituent Assembly (ANC), said last week, during his program Desenlaces, that the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) is “a total disaster” and denounced that there are two non-magistrates who impose decisions.

He also strongly criticized the president of the TSJ: “In this court that is leaving there is talk that it does not have 32 judges but 34. That there is a 33 magistrate who makes the decisions. The litigation in this country is over. And there is another lady who with the designation, she is the one who decides when it becomes effective, when is the delivery, when they swear in. A total disaster! ”.

He continued: “I watched the installation of the judicial year on television and listened carefully to the speeches and there I saw no rectification, no revision, no call to amend. That was the Titanic. The sinking ship and pure applause, pure achievements, pure conquests. And the corruption that swarms there, everything that is happening within the justice system! Oh, my God, aren't you going to make a rectification? Neither the magistrate (Marjorie Calderón) nor the president (Maikel Moreno)... that was pure achievement. The Titanic sinking and the orchestra playing.”

The president of the Venezuelan National Assembly (AN, Parliament), Jorge Rodríguez, reported last week that 254 people make up the final list of aspiring judges of the Supreme Court of Justice following the reform of the organic law governing the powers of that instance, which reduced the number of judges to 20.

Vente Venezuela considered that the process that began on January 18 in Parliament, following the reform of the Law of the Supreme Court of Justice, and the appointment of new judges seeks “the sustenance of (Nicolás) Maduro and the commission of serious violations of human rights”.

“They are preparing the ground to form a tribunal to suit them and stop the progress of the investigation against Nicolás Maduro in the International Criminal Court (ICC), as well as the trials and economic sanctions that exist against the criminal conglomerate that usurps power,” the opposition party ruled.

(With information from EFE)

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