The acting president told the UN that Venezuela has begun a democratic transformation process involving institutional reforms, participation by all political forces, and elections. However, she did not specify a date for the vote.
The Daily Journal.- Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, announced Wednesday before the 81st United Nations General Assembly the beginning of a political transformation process that she said would lead the country toward an “era of full democracy,” with elections and institutional reforms.
“I am pleased to announce that Venezuela has begun a process of democratic transformation for its rebirth, an orderly, institutional, and verifiable process to build a freer country for everyone, a more prosperous country, and one more reconciled with itself,” Rodríguez stated during her address in New York.
The acting president presented this process as a way out of years of political confrontation and linked it to a period of structural reforms.
“A process of political, economic, and spiritual change. Structural reforms for the rebirth of Venezuela, for the rebirth of our nation, for the rebirth of our people,” she said.
Rodríguez maintained that Venezuela must leave political division behind and establish mechanisms for dialogue to resolve differences among various sectors.
“We must close this chapter to usher in a new political era grounded in truth, justice, and the ability to look forward together and find, through respectful political dialogue, a genuine space to resolve the differences we have as Venezuelans,” she said.
Elections and political participation
One of the main announcements in her speech concerned future elections. Rodríguez assured the international community that Venezuela would hold elections, although she did not establish a specific date.
“I want to make this very clear before this General Assembly: Venezuela will hold elections, and toward that end, we have begun a political dialogue with opposition sectors to establish a process under equal conditions for everyone,” she stated.
She explained that Venezuelans would determine when the elections should take place and that institutions would need to prepare to guarantee the process.
“The Venezuelan people, with their ancestral wisdom, will determine the right moment, and their institutions will be ready to guarantee an inclusive and transparent process,” she added.
Rodríguez also outlined a vision of democracy that, she argued, should extend beyond holding elections.
“The existence of elections does not measure democracy; democracy is measured by the quality of the competition that precedes those elections,” she maintained. “An election must provide a solution, not generate irreconcilable conflicts.”
Institutional and judicial reform
The acting president also presented an institutional reform agenda that she described as one of the pillars of the transition.
The first pillar, she said, will involve an “orderly legal reform” aimed at strengthening state functioning and guaranteeing legal certainty for citizens and domestic and international investors.
“Venezuela has undertaken a process of institutional review to strengthen the functioning of the state and provide the legal certainty that not only domestic and international investors need, but also our citizens, so they do not suffer abuses at the hands of arbitrary power,” she stated.
Within this framework, she described judicial reform as an “urgent necessity that cannot wait.”
As a second pillar, she identified the “responsible and full exercise of politics” and assured the international community that her administration would guarantee participation for all political forces.
“Venezuela will guarantee genuine conditions for participation for all political forces in the country,” she maintained.
A call to overcome division
Rodríguez began her speech by describing Venezuela as a country that has endured years of political confrontation and economic blockades.
“For far too long, we were a country divided into opposing trenches, where the color of a party flag carried more weight than the common identity we all share as Venezuelan men and women,” she said.
The acting president stated that the new era should aim to build a political system in which no political force needs to prevail by disregarding others.
“It is about building a country where no one has to win by disregarding the other, because all of us, especially young people who are just beginning their political socialization, are Venezuela,” she said.
She also called on the political class to place national interests above partisan disputes.
“We must aspire to a Venezuela whose political class demonstrates a deep commitment to placing national interests above everything else and does not fall captive to media algorithms,” she stated.
Rodríguez linked political reforms to economic and social transformation. She said she seeks to establish “new foundations for an economy that serves national development” and a system of justice and social equality.
“I want us to raise the foundations of a new, pluralistic, deeply spiritual republic, at peace with itself, from the rubble of division,” she declared.
“Legality can be the path toward better legality”
The acting president also defended a transition driven by existing institutions rather than a rupture of the institutional order.
“History has taught us that some of the strongest democratic transitions in the contemporary world did not emerge from rupture, but from transformation carried out firmly from within the institutions themselves,” she stated.
She added: “Legality can be the path toward better legality.”
Rodríguez maintained that institutional reconstruction will play a fundamental role in restoring citizens’ trust.
“A nation is not reborn merely by rebuilding buildings; it is reborn when it rebuilds trust in its institutions,” she said.
As she concluded her address, the acting president defined her role as guiding the country from uncertainty and conflict toward a new political era.
“I come to assume a historic responsibility going forward: to lead Venezuela from an era of uncertainty and conflict toward an era of full democracy, recognized by its own people and by the world,” she stated.
She added: “To my beloved people, I say: This is not the end of a speech; it is the beginning of a commitment. To the international community, I say: Venezuela is ready to walk hand in hand with those who believe in respectful international relations, free from interference and prejudgment.”
