The Daily Journal.- Juan Miguel Matheus, a member of the opposition delegation in talks with the Delcy Rodríguez administration, believes that transforming the judiciary must constitute one of the first steps toward an eventual democratic reconstruction of Venezuela.
In an article published Friday in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Matheus warns that an electoral system with integrity requires independent judges capable of protecting the will expressed at the ballot box.
The member of the 2015 National Assembly argues that discussions about electoral safeguards cannot focus solely on the National Electoral Council (CNE), voting machines or audits. “True electoral integrity cannot exist where there is no independent judiciary capable of protecting it,” he says.
The opposition leader links this reform to the agreements reached on August 12 during the negotiation process promoted by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio between the Rodríguez administration and the National Assembly elected in 2015.
Among the agreed measures, he cites a comprehensive renewal of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), an independent evaluation of candidates for judicial positions, reform of the law governing the country’s highest court, and a new nomination mechanism that includes civil society participation.
Matheus points to the 2015 National Assembly experience as a precedent, arguing that the TSJ progressively neutralized its opposition majority through more than 70 rulings.
“They did not need to eliminate the ballot box or prevent us from voting. All they needed was a Court capable of subsequently stripping what we, as a people, had decided of its political effect,” he argues.
The former lawmaker also links that episode to what happened after the July 28, 2024 presidential election, when, he says, authorities once again used the judiciary to give a legal appearance to results that lacked support from a transparent and verifiable publication of the voting records.
“Dismantling the judicial dictatorship had to be one of the first steps toward rebuilding the democratic state established by the Constitution,” Matheus says.
The opposition leader warns, however, that the renewal of the TSJ must not turn into a division of positions between the government and the opposition. “An independent judge cannot belong to the government or the opposition. A judge must serve the Republic,” he says.
For Matheus, judicial independence represents a necessary condition for any eventual recovery of electoral institutions to have a real impact. “An independent National Electoral Council is necessary, but it is not enough,” he says, adding that an independent judge also serves as a “guardian of the vote.”
The lawmaker concludes that Venezuela’s democratization requires guarantees that judges answer to the Constitution rather than to the political sectors that appoint them.
“Nor is expressing our will enough if there are no institutions capable of ensuring that others respect it,” he argues.
