Political Rights Violations in Venezuela

In this essay, I will analyze and explain the systematic violation of political rights in Venezuela. The accumulation of power by the executive government, censorship of the press and criminalization of political opposition during the presidencies of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro, call into question the existence of political rights in Venezuela. To begin we must ask ourselves, how are the systematic violation of political rights in Venezuela happening?

To understand this phenomenon, we must go back to the years 1998 and 1999. After a 40-year democratic bipartisan rule of Accion democratica (AD) and Comite de Organizacion Politica Electoral Independiente (COPEI), the leading political parties were highly discredited, the nation’s economy deteriorated, poverty rising, and the democratic system collapsing. During this situation, the country decided to elect a new president, Hugo Chavez. Originally a member of the National Armed Forces, Chavez was first known in 1992, after he attempted to overthrow AD President Carlos Andres Perez in a coup d’état. He blamed President Perez for imposing economic policies recommended by the IMF, that according to Chavez, affected the poorest in Venezuela. Moreover, Chavez accused the government of killing thousands of unarmed and hungry civilians during the riots known as El Caracazo in 1989. Six years after his first appearance to the public opinion, Hugo Chavez was elected president with the promise of changing the bipartisan system and drafting a new ‘Bolivarian’ constitution for Venezuela (Barbieri, 2017, 30).

Chavez promised to expand democracy and human rights for Venezuelan population. Many of these ideas are even drafted in the 1999 constitution (Espinoza, 2016, 85). However, since his rule began the human and political rights in Venezuela have been suffering constant setbacks.

The political rights of the population, and of any politician aiming to change the nation’s authorities, and system has been limited to just voting in elections. Meanwhile, the independence of powers, the freedom of the press and the respect for political opposition has been severely damaged during the Chavez and Maduro’s rule (Bolivar, 2013, chap.3).

The first thing to consider in the lack of independence and the accumulation of power by the central government of Venezuela since 1999. The constitution of Venezuela, proposed by Hugo Chavez through a constituent assembly and approved by referendum in 1999, establishes in its 4th article that Venezuela is a federal state (Combellas, 2003, 203). However, the central government in Caracas, controls almost all the power of the country.

Venezuela’s public powers are divided in five official branches, executive power, judicial power, legislative power, moral power, and electoral power. Since 1999, the executive power of Venezuela has almost entirely controlled all branches of government. Many of these branches have been used through the years to serve ruling party’s interests. The institutions are overtaken by people with government party, Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV), affiliation, and not necessarily qualified professionals for the position. Moreover, since 1999 systematic violations against political rights have been happening, from the institutions that are controlled and manipulated by the executive government. The lack of independence of the institutions has even expanded to the National Armed Forces of Venezuela. This use given to public institutions constitutes an open violation to the rule of law, and has been a systematic practice since 1999 (Holland et al., 2008, chap.1).

Let’s look in detail how the Venezuelan regime has controlled some of the state’s public institutions, for example, the judiciary system. Before Chavez's era, the Judicial Power, just like the bipartisan democratic system, was highly discredited. Through the constitution of 1999, Chavez committed to guarantee the full independence of this branch of government; however, this commitment was not fulfilled. In 2004, the ruling party legitimately controlled National Assembly (Legislative Power), took advantage of the fragile system to expand the justices from 20 to 32. A simple majority vote choose the justices. Once Chavez supporters overtook the judicial branch, they immediately removed justices who had opposed and ruled against the president before. Since this year, the judicial power of Venezuela lost its independence as an autonomous power, to serve the interests of the executive (Holland et al., 2008, chap.3).

Another example to consider, is the use given to the Electoral power controlled by the executive government. One of the most infamous cases of political discrimination in Venezuela is the 2004 ‘Tascon list’, which was backed by the National Electoral Council (CNE). After the 2004 recall referendum against President Chavez, the electoral controlled body, through its president, Francisco Carrasquero, gave full information of the people who signed the petition for the recall referendum to Chavez’s campaign manager, Congressman of Tachira (state) Luis Tascon. The list of people who signed a petition for a recall referendum, which would have ended the president’s term, was made public. Signers, especially those in the public sector, suffered from retaliation and political persecution. This is just one example of the use given to the electoral power since 1999. It has not been an independent and autonomous power since its existence as a branch of the public powers of Venezuela (Holland, et al. 2008, chap. 2).

Lack of political rights in Venezuela since 1999 have expanded way beyond public institutions. One of most damaged areas has been the media. As with the state institutions, during the Chavez and Maduro years the public radio, newspapers and television networks have served party and government interests, denying the access of opposition, manipulating the information, and following the governing party line. However, the control and attempt against media has not been only in the public sector. During the Chavez and Maduro years, taking advantage of the controlled state institutions, there has been a systematic process of communicational hegemony in Venezuela (Centeno et al., 2017, chap 2.). This has been expressed mainly by using the public mass media for propaganda and PSUV interests, and persecuting and controlling private and dissident media.

The attempt against freedom of speech and of the press has been conducted from the National Commission of Telecommunications (CONATEL). This institution has been used during the Chavez and Maduro years as a watchdog to all those who speak ill against the government. In 2008 this commission, removed 229 radio stations and 36 television networks from the air for being openly opposed to the government (Centeno et al., 2017, chap 4). This has also created a state of auto censorship, for fear of being shut down by the government The most famous case of censorship came in 2007 when CONATEL, did not renew the public concession to Radio Caracas Television (RCTV), the oldest and largest television network of the country. This event shocked the country for many months, and came to be known as the RCTV case.

To understand this case, we must go back to the year 2002. During that year the Government of Hugo Chavez was overthrown for a lapse of two days. After the unsuccessful coup against the government, Chavez blamed some of the major television networks, especially RCTV. He accused them of conspiring to overthrow the government, and qualified them as fascists, and enemies of the people. The relationship between RCTV and the government the following years was critical. It ultimately finished by not having its concession renewed, and being shut down from the public space. RCTV has not recovered its television space back since that day (Centeno et al., 2017, chap 5).

In summary, controlled state institutions by the executive government have created a state of hegemony and political rights violation in Venezuela. The political opposition and dissidence has suffered multiple consequences for opposing the Chavez and Maduro presidencies since 1999.

Sources

Barbieri, Pierpaolo. 2017. "The Agony of Venezuela." National Review 69, no. 16: 30-33. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost.

Bolivar, Ligia. 2013. "Overview of human rights in Venezuela." Politeja 24, 267. Complementary Index, EBSCOhost.

Cegarra, Alejandro. 2017 “Total Collapse: Venezuela after Chavez.” World Policy Journal 34, no. 1: 60-73. Project MUSE.

Combellas, Ricardo. 2003. “The constituent process and the Constitution of 1999.” Revista Politeia no. 30: 183-208. Instituto de estudios políticos, Universidad Central de Venezuela.

Espinosa, Claudia. 2016. “Public policies with a human rights perspective in the shift to the left. From rupture to the second round in Venezuela and Ecuador.” Revista Latinoamericana de Derechos Humanos no. 26: 79-98. Universidad Nacional.

Holland, Alisha, Sebastian Brett, Tamara Taraciuk, and Daniel Wilkinson. 2008. A Decade Under Chávez: Political Intolerance and Lost Opportunities for Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela. United States: Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/09/18/decade-under-ch-vez

Juan Carlos, Centeno Maldonado, and Mata Quintero Gerardo. 2017. "Comunicational Hegemony and Freedom of Expression in Venezuela. The RCTV case." Revista Mexicana De Opinión Pública no. 22: 35. SciELO, EBSCOhost