US embassy cable - 04CARACAS1508

C O N F I D E N T I A L  CARACAS 001508 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
NSC FOR CBARTON 
USCINCSO ALSO FOR POLAD 
USAID DCHA/OTI FOR RPORTER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/20/2014 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, KDEM, VE 
SUBJECT: SUPREME COURT LAW PASSED 
 
 
Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ABELARDO A. ARIAS FOR REASONS 1.4 (d 
) 
 
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SUMMARY 
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1.  (C) The National Assembly completed the second reading of 
the Organic Law of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) April 
30.  The bill, which now goes to committee before further 
consideration by the plenary, would: 
-- raise the number of Supreme Court judges from 20 to 32; 
-- allow the judges to be appointed by a simple majority of 
the National Assembly; 
-- give the Human Rights Ombudsman, Attorney General and 
Comptroller General the power to suspend judges; 
-- and allow the Assembly to revoke judicial confirmations by 
a simple majority.  Chavez opponents believe it will be three 
to five months before new judges are appointed, but are 
concerned that Chavez supporters will move quickly to suspend 
judges they do not like from the TSJ.  End Summary. 
 
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Marathon sessions to pass law 
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2.  (C) The National Assembly (NA) has been considering the 
Organic Law of the Supreme Court of Justice since January of 
2003.  The pro-GOV majority, called the Bloque del Cambio (BC 
- Alliance for Change) used three tactics to pass the law on 
this reading.  First, they reduced the bill from 179 articles 
to 23, by combining articles and dropping some parts of the 
law.  They also modified internal NA debate rules six times 
to restrict the extensive debates that the opposition had 
used as a delaying tactic.  BC legislators then used marathon 
NA sessions, extending through the night, to push the 
shortened bill through the NA. 
 
3.  (C) Opposition deputies charge that the changes to 
internal NA rules, and the compression of the articles 
violate parliamentary procedures and standards for drafting 
laws.  Primero Justicia deputy Gerardo Blyde told members of 
the diplomatic corps on May 4 that legislators did not see 
amended texts, some of them five to six pages in length, 
until they were brought up for a vote.  NA rules, Blyde said, 
require texts to be distributed five days in advance. 
 
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Next Steps 
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4.  (C) The bill now goes to the Internal Politics commission 
for fine tuning before being returned to the plenary for 
another vote.  The commission has ten days, but according to 
legislator Leopoldo Martinez, the Bloque del Cambio could 
succeed in turning the bill back to the plenary as early as 
May 6.  The bill would then be sent to the President, who has 
10 days to approve it, send it back to the NA for changes, or 
send it to the TSJ, according to article 214 of the 
Constitution.  Names of GOV supporters are already being 
floated in the papers.  Among those whose names are being 
rumored to be candidates for the new judgeships, according to 
press reports, are NA Deputy Luis Velasquez Alvaray 
(Movimiento Quinta Republica), who led the push to pass the 
law, and Marisol Plaza, the Solicitor General. 
 
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Main Points 
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5.  (U) Chavez opponents note that the main provision of the 
bill is to expand the number of TSJ judges from 20 to 32. 
The GOV argument is that the extra judges are needed to bring 
down the backlog of cases before the TSJ.  The opposition 
argues it is an attempt to solidify the Chavista's hold on 
chambers they already control, and take control of the ones 
they do not.  The law would also allow the NA to approve 
judges with a simple majority vote after three failed 
attempts to get a two thirds majority.  The law would also 
give the NA more control over the appointments committee that 
recommends candidates to the NA, and reduce the influence of 
 
the TSJ on the committee.  According to Martinez, it would 
take three to five months for the first new judges to be 
appointed. 
 
6.  (C) Martinez also warned about two other features of the 
law which will become operative much sooner.  The "Citizen 
Power," composed of the Human Rights Ombudsman, the 
Controller General, and the Attorney General (all Chavista 
appointees) can suspend judges when they have committed 
serious infractions.  This suspension must then be accepted 
or rejected by a two-thirds majority of the NA.  Until such a 
decision, the judge would remain out of office.  Blyde 
asserted that this provision violates the constitution and 
gives Chavez supporters the ability to side-line judges 
without having to convince two-thirds of the legislature of 
the charges. 
 
7.  (C) Another article allows a majority NA vote to remove 
any justice from the TSJ who is found to have made false 
statements in the nominations process.  Martinez said this is 
designed to get rid of Franklin Arrieche, justice of the 
Civil Chamber, and Vice President of the full court. 
According to Martinez, these very rapid steps could give the 
GOV control of the TSJ long before any judges are appointed, 
and in time to prevent an adverse ruling from the full court 
on the dispute between the Electoral and Constitutional 
Chambers over their competency to rule on the Presidential 
recall referendum. 
 
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Opposition Complaints 
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8.  (C) In addition to Blyde's complaints about the tactics 
used to pass the law, poor legislative craftwork and 
constitutional violation, Carlos Tablante of the Movimiento 
Hacia el Socialismo (MAS) called the bill "a parliamentary 
coup d'etat which will gravely injure the Judicial Power." 
Teodoro Petkoff argued in his May 4 newspaper column that for 
all intents and purposes, President Chavez is now de facto 
President of the Supreme Court.  Opposition leaders continue 
to examine options to fight the law.  One possible avenue is 
a repeal referendum, which would require the signatures of 
ten percent of the people on the electoral register to 
activate it.  They are also considering taking the law before 
the TSJ. 
 
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COMMENT 
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9.  (C) With this law, the Chavistas hope to take firm 
control of all the chambers of the TSJ, ending any serious 
judicial review of their actions.  Besides the ability to 
appoint loyal judges, the law gives the Chavistas running the 
Citizen Power a huge stick with which to threaten any judge 
who might dare to oppose the government.  This power will be 
the first to come on line, and may be enough to render the 
opposition's judicial strategy moot.  The only real hope for 
the TSJ is if the Court itself decides to intervene in its 
own defense.  The idea of a repeal referendum is almost a 
non-starter, given the history of the presidential recall 
referendum.  The Chavez success on the TSJ law bodes ill for 
other legislation that the revolution has deemed a priority. 
The next target is the media law. No doubt we will see many 
of the same tactics to push the draft through without 
compromise or meaningful debate. 
SHAPIRO 
 
 
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      2004CARACA01508 - CONFIDENTIAL