By Jose Negron Valera on March 27, 2019
Sixty days has passed since Juan Guaido proclaimed himself Interim President of Venezuela at a public square in Caracas.
Since that day, the South American country has undergone border invasion attempts, the theft of over 35 billion dollars in assets and properties abroad, sabotage of the electrical system and more conspiracies are in the planning to carry out terrorist actions in the country as part of what the Nicolas Maduro Administration has called a “multidimensional war” against the Bolivarian nation.
Two facts are noteworthy in the complex matrix of actions being planned to break the Venezuelan Government and People’s resistance. First, a strange movement made up of a coalition of some of the biggest international media companies such as CNN, New York Times, AFP and Reuters. Besides debunking biased opinion campaigns against the Nicolas Maduro Administration -like, for instance, the burning of alleged humanitarian aid at the Colombian-Venezuelan border-, these companies have significantly diminished Guaido’s media profile. From “Interim President”, to calling him “Acting President” and now they just say “Venezuelan engineer.”
The second aspect deals with the difficulty of bringing to light which laws did Juan Guaido violate.
Venezuelan constitutional lawyer Maria Alejandra Diaz, chairwoman of the National Constituent Assembly commission on human rights and constitutional guarantees, was interviewed by Sputnik with a view to analyze this issue legally and politically.
When did Juan Guaido start to violate the Constitution?
Since 2015, when opponents won a majority of seats at the National Assembly they started to draft laws against the Constitution, thus breaking from the Venezuela’s constitutional order. That was the first conflict with the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Branch, which is in charge of protecting the Venezuelan Constitution as its main interpreter. Given this situation, the Court’s Constitutional Branch mediated and nullified about 13 laws passed by them. The Assembly then swore in three deputies whose proclamation acts had been nullified and were not supposed to join the legislative body.
The indigenous deputies…
They were elected fraudulently. This is why they are outside the law even though they were elected legitimately and abided by the National Electoral Council, public powers and the same Venezuelan electoral and democratic system. Now, regarding Mr. Guaido, when they elected that board of directors on January 5, 2019, they disobeyed a ruling from the Judicial Power of the Supreme Court.
Their designation was unlawful thus they were acting outside the law starting from that moment. So, this self-proclamation is just deepening attacks to the constitutional order.
This attack is not against the Administration but against the Constitution itself. The Constitution clearly states the separation of powers and every public branch has a duty to meet that requirement. Guaido is a de facto president, violating the law and the principle of separation of powers. He is merging the presidencies of the Legislative and Executive powers while deciding to interpret the Constitution in his own way. As a matter of fact Guaido has become a tyrant since he began acting unlawfully, he has destroyed the law and he has attacked the constitutional order.
Do you have a record of how many laws Juan Guaido has violated?
When he called for an intervention he violated the so-called “Constitution’s heart”, that is, core provisions included articles one through seven. Telling you that he violated one or two articles is a truism. However, he has also infringed on articles like 233 and 336. In other words he and his minions have infringed basic provisions such as the purpose of the Constitution and the model of State.
But he has also violated other type of laws such as the Penal Code. We have for instance the issue of betraying the homeland, usurping presidential powers by appointing alleged ambassadors. These fraudulent ambassadors are now acting on behalf of the Republic in international courts.
When they published their Statute Governing the Transition, they completely violated the Constitution by repealing it. When I talk about him as alleged Chairperson of the National Assembly, I refer to the legislative body.
Laws are infringed by Guaido or by the National Assembly as a whole?
I don’t want to talk about one person because the body, the National Assembly, has undertaken a coup d’état against the Constitution, releasing that Statute of Transition. Such a regimen does not exist in our Constitution. It infringes on the interpretation and limits established in the Constitution, disowning court orders in the jurisprudence of Venezuela’s constitutional order which are the very basis of law. I could spend the whole evening here listing all the violations, but the fundamental truth is that their attitude is a systematic violation not only to the Penal Code but to the complete constitutional order.
Juan Guaido has undertaken actions to block the country’s assets and bank accounts. Legally speaking, what do you think about that?
Juan Gauido is nothing but a puppet of a bigger plan to steal Venezuela’s wealth. If you analyze the map of economic possibilities, particularly natural resources, you will realize that in 20 years Iran and Venezuela are the two countries with possibilities of having oil resources for 100 more years. In eight years, the United States will not have oil, not even oil shale. Colombia will be in serious trouble next year. Those countries are on the basis of gas but they do not have oil to supply it.
If you notice Venezuela’s role in that world scenario, you’ll realize who is behind this move; tanks and cannons from the United States. That is why Mr. Guaido has such a bold attitude and does not care about violating the constitutional order. They have confidence that those cannons will succeed and that they will manage out of the ashes of the Bolivarian model. That’s their expectation.
If you understand that, you’ll understand that we are fighting against the dominant system in the world. Venezuela’s conflict is no longer a political conflict among domestic antagonist forces. It is a global and geopolitical conflict. Now, what does it mean? What can Venezuela do? They must take audacious measures such as unprecedented alliances to strategically deter that power.
What kind of alliances?
A payment gateway with Iran, Russia and China, for instance. Creating an interbank system that allows us to escape the global financial dominance system. Venezuela has a very powerful strength which is the monetization of its reserves and which is vital for the world geopolitical order. Venezuela owns, as the Constitution reads and that’s the source of the conflict, one of the world’s largest oil, gold, gas, diamond and thorium reserves.
Once you monetize, you convert resources in real assets and you can circulate it. Thus, you can tackle that financial system that is nothing but gas because it is backed with an illegal and illegitimate currency like the dollar. It has no guarantees. We do have guarantees. When I talk about unprecedented alliances I talk about countries with resources, which make an agreement and say to the world “We are moving to real issues,” facing the U.S. Federal Reserve, what does it mean? That you will unleash the anger of the world’s largest powers of corporatocracy. Venezuela is now in that world conflict, the core of the world conflict, but there are audacious measures we can take in this hybrid war.
They are braking to pieces international law to make way for the survival of the fittest prevail. How can you confront that? With real facts. The military, economic and energetic force of an alternate pole of power, let’s call it BRICS. With them, Venezuela and those unprecedented alliances will counterweight not to put an end to the United States, but to hold it back and make it a responsible world power.
How can you explain to the world that a person who violated all these articles and laws in the Constitution is still free, as in the case of Guaido?
Juan Guaido is not playing alone. Behind him we find the most genocidal power in the history of humanity. You play in a world board, not alone. Venezuela is in the core of the world’s geopolitical debate. One mistake can give that power free rein to act under futile excuses.
Juan Guaido is not important here but the actions taken by that power when it does not recognize you, takes you out of your embassies and tries to seize Venezuelan territory abroad by force. That is an invasion, an open casus belli. (an action that justifies a war – ed.) More than a legal conflict, this is political. That’s probably the reason why President Maduro, who has more information than us, did not proceed to arrest him.
Options are closing off because he (Juan Guaido) is vanishing by himself. He says he is the President but he can’t carry out even one action as president. Now, what is his strength? His real ally is the financial system, through sanctions and unlawful appropriations of Venezuela’s assets.
Journalist Dan Cohen compared Guaido to bait used to entice fish. He said the United States is using him as a bait to give raise to a ‘casus belli.’ How should the violation of laws and the Venezuelan Constitution be treated so as to not fall on Washington’s trap but also to not undermine the rule of law?
We are amidst a conflict, as Venezuelans say, we’re on a knife edge. Because this Mr. Guaido is leading the massive violation to the Constitution, but we have to preserve a greater good and that is peace. In this low-intensity conflict of medium and maybe long term –it reminds me of the Plaza Altamira events, when high ranking officers rebelled against Chavez though an OAS commission was here-, nobody understood what was going on. Only Chavez understood and when conditions were favorable, he proceeded. We defeated them then and that’s why we are here. Maybe that’s the appreciation assumed by those who make decisions in Venezuela’s Executive Power. Guaido is not dangerous because he’s Guaido, but because he’s backed by the cannons and bombs of the Unites States of North America. Let’s not forget that.
https://mundo.sputniknews.com/firmas/201903271086333332-guaido-viola-constitucion-venezolana/
Source: Sputnik News, translation Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau