Systematic Judicial Interventions in Venezuelan Politics: Co-opting Opposition Parties Since 2020

2024-03-17 16:55:00
Since 2020, judicial interventions have become systematic, as part of a strategy to co-opt opposition parties

The Venezuelan dictator, Nicolás Maduro, is advancing at full speed in his plan to have tailored presidential elections, with which he intends to secure six more years in power.

After banning María Corina Machado, whom all polls show as a favorite after being elected as a unitary opposition candidate in primaries with more than 90% of the votes; Now the regime has decided to annul 14 political parties, five of them openly opposition, with the intention of further limiting the possibilities that the opposition coalition has to run a candidacy that faces Maduro.

The National Electoral Council (CNE), controlled by Chavismo, authorized only 34 political parties to participate in the presidential elections of July 28, 2024. However, the majority of these organizations are controlled, directly or indirectly, by the regime of Nicolás Maduro. Only two qualified parties are truly considered opponents.

The Chavista regime disqualified María Corina Machado, who was elected as a unitary opposition candidate in primaries with more than 90% of the votes.

Among the parties authorized to nominate presidential candidates, 11 groups stand out that in recent years have been intervened by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), controlled by Chavismo, through the appointment of new authorities related to or loyal to the regime. Some of them were historically opponents of Chavismo and others were part of the forces that accompanied former President Hugo Chávez, but later distanced themselves from Maduro.

The beginning of the interventions dates back to 2012, when the Constitutional Chamber of the TSJ appointed Didalco Bolívar, a former governor who had been accused of corruption, as president of an ad hoc board of directors of the Podemos party, a leftist organization that had been in office since 2007. broken with Chavismo.

Three years later, in 2015, prior to the legislative elections of that year, the TSJ intervened four other parties: the Independent Electoral Political Organization Committee (COPEI), the National Integrity Movement – Unity (MIN Unidad), Bandera Roja (BR ) and the People’s Electoral Movement (MEP).

Starting in 2020, these judicial interventions became systematic, as part of a strategy to co-opt political organizations prior to the renewal of parliament, which since 2015 was dominated by a large opposition majority.

This is how before the 2020 parliamentary elections, the TSJ intervened in six other parties, not only opponents but also Chavista groups that had distanced themselves from Maduro and intended to postulate an alliance different from that of the ruling party.

The historic Democratic Action party (AD) was the first to be intervened that year, on June 15, 2020. The Constitutional Chamber imposed Bernabé Gutiérrez as president of an ad hoc board of directors, removing the legal representation of the organization from its secretary General, Henry Ramos Allup.

A few days later, on July 7, 2020, the same thing happened with Voluntad Popular (VP), the party of political leader Leopoldo López, which was handed over to José Gregorio Noriega, a politician who had been expelled from the group accused of receiving bribes from the Chavista regime.

On July 20, 2020, the Electoral Chamber of the TSJ reactivated an appeal that had been presented in 2017 and used it to suspend the authorities of the Republican Movement (MR) party and intervene in the organization.

A month later, the attack was against left-wing parties that expressed differences with Maduro’s policies and had the intention of challenging him by presenting a coalition with alternative candidates to the ruling party. Thus, the Constitutional Chamber of the TSJ intervened on August 18 against the far-left Tupamaro movement, and on August 21 against the Patria Para Todos (PPT) party, appointing directors loyal to the regime.

That month, the Supreme Court also reactivated the cases against the MIN-Unidad and Bandera Roja parties, which had been intervened in 2015, and authorized managers sympathetic to the regime as legal representatives to participate in the legislative elections.

The most recent victim of Chavismo’s judicial interventions was the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV). After more than 90 years of history, the political awning was intervened on August 11, 2023.

The decision of the Constitutional Chamber of the TSJ occurred after the PCV broke with the Maduro regime and denounced the authoritarian drift of its government.

The Court appointed Henry Parra, a regional leader who had been expelled from the party two years earlier, as an ad hoc director.

Of the 34 parties authorized by the CNE to participate in the presidential elections of July 28, 2024, only one – Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT) – is part of the Democratic Unitary Platform, the main opposition coalition.

In addition, the Democratic Unity Table (MUD) was enabled, the card – with the “la manito” logo – that represented the opposition in the last decade and which has been the most voted in the country’s electoral history.

However, the MUD may be the next victim of the judicial interventions of the Maduro regime, since last Friday the Chavista politician Luis Ratti announced that he will go before the Electoral Chamber of the TSJ to request the “nullity” of the Table card. of Democratic Unity, with the argument that “it is a political party.”

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