Democracy in Venezuela

Below is a brief, but concise, opinion about the powers, such as the Legislative, Judicial, and Executive—which although they are the three main, are not the only ones in the country. I will also comment on the type of democracy that I observe currently in Venezuela.

To know the origin of the variation in the number of powers of our country, we go back to the year 1999, when a referendum was held by President Hugo Chávez, which gave birth to two unconventional powers—the electoral and the citizen. The latter, in my opinion, is a waste of time and resources because, as a general idea, it is not a bad concept to maintain a union, fraternal protection in order to maintain the sovereignty of the people. Unfortunately, however, the government is made up of inexperienced people because they selected people without the necessary knowledge for these tasks, which has led to corruption.

On the other hand, the National Electoral Council, the highest representative of the electoral power: Although it is extremely useful, since theoretically, it gives a certain autonomy to the electoral results, increasing the participation and protagonism of the people. Sadly, this organ of the government was partitioned, which causes unfair votes for the election of representatives of the people.

Returning to the three original powers, I want to talk about one that is directly responsible for compliance with the laws. This is the Judiciary, represented in the Supreme Court of Justice and elected by the National Assembly. Despite the fact that theoretically, it has impartiality, sovereignty, and autonomy, however, it cannot express opinions or dictate judgments in decisions taken by other powers, as all are equally autonomous and sovereign.

On the other hand, we have the Executive Branch. Represented mainly by the President of the Republic, it is practically unnecessary to say all the violations to the constitution that the present man has made in this position, as he has done a complete libertinism in all areas. For example, we have ignored the rendering of accounts to the National Assembly, only because it was not biased in its favor—without mentioning that each economic measure that it implements aggravates the situation of the country. Another example is when in appointing ministers, an area in which he certainly has power, he has chosen people without knowledge in the areas covered by the assigned ministry.

Finally, on the issue of powers, I want to talk about the Legislative Power, the one that exercises the National Assembly—a body composed of 167 people, elected to put certain regulations to the Executive power (as in budgets, that is why the highest representative of this power at the beginning of the year must attend to render accounts). Currently this power is ignored, since they have not managed to manipulate it, since they were elected 112 deputies against the ruling, so they sought to nullify the majority of two thirds by issuing sanctions by the TSJ. Just as elections were never called to replace these vacancies, this is regrettable, since it is the only power that manages to control the opposition, which implies that there is a political monopoly that does not allow freedom of expression, nor a free and correct exercise of democracy.

Taking this opportunity to talk about this last issue, it should be remembered that in Venezuela—as a result of the Punto Fijo pact—representative democracy was born, which consists of giving the people the right to choose who delegates for them and defends their purposes. Currently it is not respected, since the elections are carried out by a fraudulent democratic electoral power, which although it validates the results, then by means of another power, it annuls them. In the issuance of the new constitution in 1999, the so-called participatory and protagonist democracy was born, of concepts that are morally logical. Since it is the people who choose their rulers, the power resides in the people, but this is clearly lost since, in the current dictatorship, no protagonism is respected, nor is freedom of expression allowed. The basis of democracy, of any kind, in this country is null.

Finally, I want to clarify that I expressed my opinion without offending, simply by way of expressing and denouncing such unjust acts that have brought negative repercussions in the lives of all Venezuelans—from Exodus to poverty, including deaths due to lack of medication or food, all for the simple ambition of a group of people of money and power. It has undoubtedly caused the sense of justice to be lost, becoming debauchery, which, as we know, ends in the perversion of human moral principles, values, and any pure feeling.