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Español Dialogue in Venezuela between the opposition and Nicolás Maduro’s administration has seen fundamental rights established in the constitution swapped, rearranged or thrown away like playing cards.
The Venezuelan regime and the opposition reportedly negotiate issues that should already be a guarantee because they are laid out in the Magna Carta and the country’s own founding documents, constitutional lawyer José Vicente Haro told El Estímulo.
“The Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) has reached a new low,” he said, “negotiating the constitution, rights, freedoms, giving priority to its political militancy.”
He said he believes political dialogue has affected the common people of Venezuela the most, as they relied on opposition leadership and a recall referendum that has already been sidetracked. This week, officials decided to suspend negotiations altogether.
At the negotiation table, the Venezuelan opposition allegedly decided to give up its political agenda. Originally, there was going to be a political trial, a march to the presidential palace in Miraflores, accusations made in international media outlets, cries for the implementation of the Democratic Charter and separation of some deputies from their seats. None of this has happened. The opposition also abandoned its fight for the recall referendum.
All this, in exchange for the release of political prisoners — and not even in the hundreds; only seven have been released.
“There is something that we must be clear,” Haro said. “The constitution, nor rights, are negotiable. The powers and rights established in the Magna Carta for public entities such as the National Assembly are not negotiable. The political representation of the states, like that of (the state of) Amazonas, should not be negotiated, either.”
For Haro, it is worrying that political prisoners are handled like “hostages” at the negotiations.
“Everyone that has been released is a political party activist,” he claimed. “This proves that this is a liberation of imprisoned politicians and not of political prisoners — of people who operate in political parties and are imprisoned,” he said.
He said the opposition is forgetting about the students and ordinary citizens in demonstrations that exercised their right to protest — established in article 68 of the Constitution — who have been detained for more than two years.
Another important point that the constitutionalist described as “worrying” is the disembodiment of the deputies of Amazonas.
The agreement to repeat the elections for the National Assembly (AN) in the state of Amazonas, Haro said, endorses and accepts an alleged fraud that has not been approved, violating the popular sovereignty established in article five of the constitution.
Haro also criticized the MUD and ruling party PSUV for selecting directors of the National Electoral Council based on political tendencies.
“What the constitution says in Article 296 is clear: the rectors of the CNE can not have affiliation to any political party,” he said.
“The negotiation has led to a kind of submission of the MUD to the government,” he said. “This results in leaving the constitution to the side to be violated and submitted to political interests of a specific political party,” he said.
Source: El Estímulo
