The Daily Journal.- A group of academics, oil experts, lawyers, and political leaders appeared this Thursday at the headquarters of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) to file a request for annulment on constitutional grounds against the reform of the Organic Hydrocarbons Law, approved last January.
Among the petitioners are oil expert Carlos Mendoza Potellá and academics Gustavo Márquez, Edgardo Lander, and Óscar Feo.
The initiative was also supported by union leaders Juan Piedra of the Unified Workers’ Central of Venezuela (CUTV) and Eduardo Sánchez of the National Union of Workers of the Central University of Venezuela (SinatraUCV).
The delegation was completed by leaders of political organizations, including the general secretary of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV), Oscar Figuera; leader of the Popular Historical Bloc, José Luis Ibrahim Esté; and representative of the Comunes Current, Andrés Antillano.
The plaintiffs requested that the Constitutional Chamber fully annul the regulation and immediately suspend its effects, arguing that it represents a “surrender of sovereignty” and an “irreparable damage to public assets.”
The legal team based the action on three main grounds: procedural defects in its formation, substantive unconstitutionality, and violation of the State’s authority over energy resources.
Attorney Ronny Reyes explained that the main claim is absolute annulment due to a “procedural defect” in the conception of the law.
“We are requesting the annulment on substantive constitutional grounds, since this law violates a large number of constitutional articles, affecting not only the patrimonial aspect but also the jurisdictional one,” he said.
He also emphasized the urgency of a precautionary measure to suspend the application of the law and halt the creation of contracts that, in his view, are already damaging the Republic’s assets.
For his part, attorney Yul Jabour denounced that the reform suffers from critical procedural flaws, such as not having been properly submitted to the Supreme Court for prior constitutional review, a mandatory step for organic laws.
According to the complaint filed, the petitioners argue that the reform violates the principles of economic sovereignty by allowing key decisions over resources to be made outside direct state control.
The document states that unconstitutionality is evident in the “waiver of jurisdictional sovereignty,” by allowing contractual disputes to be settled outside the Venezuelan legal framework.
They also warned about changes to the State’s participation structure in mixed companies, “which translates into a loss of income for the Nation.”
Finally, the petitioners called on the judiciary to act independently. Jabour stated that this is an opportunity for the TSJ to “redeem itself before the country” and put an end to a situation that creates “disadvantage for Venezuelans over their own natural resources.”
