In the middle of a deep stagnation of the exit routes to the Venezuelan political crisis, the benches that make up the National Assembly have been able to formalize in recent days a series of agreements so that Parliament can appoint the new members of the National Electoral Council (CNE), until now controlled by the chavismo. The pact reached between the ruling party and the opposition is the first step in a call for elections.
This year, according to the Constitution, legislative elections must be held in the country. Opposition forces grouped around Juan Guaidó they reject the vote of May 20, 2018 because they consider it fraudulent and also demand new presidential elections. The current rectors of the electoral tribunal of Venezuela have been harshly criticized for their biased attitude to Chavismo during all these years.
MORE INFORMATION
The so-called Nominating Committee of the National Assembly, which in theory must have the necessary autonomy to promote the election of these new officials, elected its board on Monday. It is made up of the deputies Ángel Medina, of Primero Justicia, as president; Julio Chavez, from the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), as vice president, and José Luis Cartaya as his secretary. This is one of the few occasions, perhaps the only one, in which the Chavista forces agree to participate in a legislative commission as a minority. The opposition has 112 deputies, compared to 54 of the PSUV.
This step, which seemed extremely complex a few weeks ago, was agreed a day before Guaidó he will summon his followers back to the streets. A march, which will run through Caracas on Tuesday, in which the presentation of the so-called “National Conflict Statement” is scheduled. The Nominations Committee was also announced without taking an oath from the President of the National Assembly, which is Guaidó himself, as stipulated by law.
However, in the negotiation of the parliamentary agreement, representatives of the legislative bench of Chavismo, the opposition and the group of dissidents linked to Luis Parra, the president of Parliament in functions imposed by Chavismo with the complacency of the Armed Forces to the detriment of the Guaidó authority two months ago.
This brief, but unusual and significant path of approximations between Chavism and the opposition in a Parliament that has been the epicenter of all kinds of conflicts, has been breaking through amid skepticism in the opposition ranks, aware of how they are the knot of the Venezuelan political crisis could be resolved if Mature and Chavismo decided to abide by the minimum institutional norms.
Ángel Medina, from Primero Justicia, justified on his Twitter account the behavior of the opposition parliamentarians, who have been harshly attacked by more radical opposition activists in social networks. Medina argues that this is an indeclinable mandate of the Legislative Power, and opens up a possibility, at least theoretical, to the fact that the elections of 2020 – are these legislative ones, as Chavism intends; or presidential and legislative, as demanded by the opposition -, are made with Maduro in power, a clause that the opposition leadership, with Guaidó at the head, has considered at all times unacceptable.
The surprising flexibility with which the Chavista bench of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela has also been subject to speculation. The announced legislative agreements have been tolerated by the Constituent Assembly, an organization convened by Maduro’s forces without the participation of critics, who usually guardianship and render the provisions of the National Assembly without effect.
The PSUV seeks an institutional agreement that allows it to present allegations as a democratic credential if international pressure overflows. The opposition forces, meanwhile, have decided to follow Chavism in the negotiations, in an undeclared manner, while at the same time a convergence between international pressure and internal activism is sought. The steps taken by the opposition and Chavismo, with all the unusual they are, are still very insufficient around the sea of controversy that continues to prevent a stable political and electoral agreement. And to the same extent that this year’s election appointments approach, the possibility of new schisms in oppositional currents is greater.
–
