Wednesday, July 16, 2008

A Supreme leak irks the Chief Justice of Venezuela´s highest court the wrong way News today was dominated by the leak from the Venezuelan Supreme Court that a proposed sentence on the Constitutionality of the disqualification or bans to run for office by the Comptroller had been presented by one of the Justices in the Constitutional Hall of the Venezuelan Supreme Court. While the focus has been on the perhaps surprising fact that the Court may rule the Comptroller can’t ban anyone from running, to me the most remarkable aspect is the irreverence that such a leak may take place at the highest Court of the land and that the Court itself does not appear to be embarrassed by the leak. I would not be that surprised by the Supreme Court disallowing the Comptroller and the Electoral Board on their flimsy legal position on the bans. I would not be surprised, because the issue has the possibility to become politically incendiary and its effects are actually quite narrow, as a ruling against the validity of the Comptroller’s ban list, in the end, has an effect on only three or four major candidates, two or three of which can be defeated if Chavez’s PSUV party play things right (with some help from the opposition). Thus, it would seem advisable for Chavez and his cohorts to avoid the possible confrontation, since there is not much to gain from it. On top of that, allowing the Comptroller to have such powers could one-day boomerang even against the members of the Court who have any political aspirations. Just think, this man can single-handedly stop the political aspirations of any Venezuelan if he holds any grudge or dislike for the potential candidate. But I am amazed how such a supreme leak appears to seem quite normal on what is left of the country’s democracy. Rather than open an investigation, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court holds a press conference blasting the press for publishing the leak, explaining what exactly a proposed sentence means and warning that it may not be approved by the full Constitutional Court or it may not even be considered before the deadline for candidates to be registered for the regional elections, which has to be done by August 5th. Clearly this was not a simple leak, but a massive dissemination of Justice’s Rondon proposed sentence, which had to come from the Supreme Court in general and from the offices of the Justices of the Constitutional Hall, including its Chief Justice specifically. But at no point was the President of the Court critical of this irresponsibility by the Highest Court, while criticizing the press for reporting exactly what they had in their hands: a leak of a possible sentence, as at no time did the press report that this was a final decision by the Court. But more significantly, the Chief Justice made some arguments that can only be considered as circular, naming the various related cases in front of the Court and attempting to establish a hierarchy of some sort among them. No case is more or less important in terms of the bans. All of the cases, whether injunction, interpretation or a request to declare the Comptrollers law unconstitutional have the same goal: Allow those disqualified by the Comptroller to register to be candidates before August 5th. and be elected if the people so desire in November. And there is no excuse for the Court not to have ruled in any of these cases, as the Chief Justice clearly mentioned the fact that justice Rondon’s case was introduced in 2004 and given the massive violation of the rights of both candidates and electors that these cases may involve, some priority should have been given to them. Otherwise disqualifying these candidates simply represents a gross miscarriage of justice But the Chief Justice should also be reminded of issues that go beyond the Constitution. The foundation of this fake revolution lies on a decision to interpret that sovereignty resides on the people, which allowed the referendum for a Constituent Assembly to take place. These are the same people that today are not being allowed to register their candidate of choice or vote for them, because the comptroller managed to find some administrative irregularity only in those cases where his political bias pushed him to look for one while the most rampant corruption in the country’s history goes unpunished day after day. 10:13:32 PM    comment []