- 5 months ago
The Acting President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, led the installation of the Commission for the National Consultation on Criminal Justice Reform in Venezuela. teleSUR
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00:03we're going live to Venezuela to Caracas so we're seeing so we're alive in the
00:19Miraflores Palace we're seeing the acting president of Rodriguez and the
00:22Nash and the president of the National Assembly Rodriguez alongside other
00:26authorities as they hold a great consultation on on the development
00:32we're seeing the acting president meet the authorities so this is we call this
00:38the Commission for the coordination of the program for peace and coexistence of
00:43democratic coexistence
00:51with different all the members that are gathered here of the program for the
00:55democratic and peace coexistence where the authorities the highest authorities are
00:59holding a consultative woman to see how the project is moving forward saying the
01:04acting president of the biggest leading this gathering this meeting let's listen
01:10to the statement of the acting president so this is the act of installation for the
01:19great consultation for the Commission for the great consultation for the reform so
01:25let's listen to the statements of the acting president Rodriguez good afternoon
01:30for the whole of Venezuela everyone present here I want to welcome your
01:35assistance here to the Miraflores Palace to attend what has been a debt with the
01:41Venezuelan people it's about the penal justice I want to call on the president of the
01:51Supreme Tribunal we are turning 33 years she's starting today 33 years of graduated from law
01:58faculty dr. Jorge Rodriguez president of the National Assembly Attorney General is also present with us the
02:13minister's Ana Maria San Juan secretary of the program for democratic coexistence minister Julio Cesar is also present with us
02:24Daniel Ramirez, Public Defender, Jorge Arriaza, Deputy and President of the Commission, Special
02:35Committee for the Follow-Up of the Amnesty Law, Marugenia Lucian, President of Funta
02:40Latin, Ernesto Villegas, Coordinator of the Program for Peace and Democratic Coexistence,
02:58Gisela Jimenez, Representative of the Venezuelan Association of Jurists, Roberto Jesus Barrio,
03:07Professor of the Faculty of the Andes University, and Reinaldo Hidalgo, Professor and Asesor.
03:17We also wanted to invite a group of academics of Venezuela so that they can assess this commission.
03:26Today we are installing the commission, the national commission.
03:31You are part of the national commission for the great consultation across the country
03:45for the penal reform.
03:47It is a call.
03:52Everything that has to do with access to justice, which is access to justice in due time.
04:00There is access to justice that allows, with any kind of discrimination, that allows access
04:08to an impartial justice.
04:12So, without doubt, steps have been given.
04:14But I believe that the debt cannot be postponed anymore and we have to take care of it.
04:20So, I welcome the formation of this commission.
04:24There is already a commission for the penal justice reform.
04:29I would like the Vice President José Cabello can give us an update on how that justice reform
04:38is moving forward.
04:39Thank you, Mr. President, greetings to all present here.
04:48It's been a few years.
04:50We installed that commission to review everything that meant the amount of people that were detained,
05:00those that were submitted to processes, why they were not going to the tribunals, even in what we call
05:09the temporary retention in the police departments and the states of the National Guard.
05:16There are many, many, there are many more people there than they were in prison.
05:27So, the prison system was very perverse.
05:32The person there, they were there for six years for minor crime and they had never gone to a court
05:43still.
05:43So, that's what we have been working beside this, President, is that together with the judicial power,
05:53Beatriz and Public Ministry, their revision of why those people were not going to jails.
06:01And there, when it came to excuses, they would make up any.
06:07In the end, unfortunately, that had become a recycling process.
06:12A recycling that has as background, unfortunately, acts of corruption.
06:19So, if I take you to the tribunal, you must pay.
06:23And we have been dismantling this.
06:25Many judges and prosecutors have been removed.
06:30Today, earlier, I gave to the magistrate something that happened of that nature in Carabobo State.
06:39And all that creates time.
06:45Every time that we, the amount of people to give fulfilling to the Constitution, we have 30% of the
06:59detained.
07:03And recycling will come back again.
07:17They don't allow people to leave in the prisons to go to the trial because they had to pay them.
07:26That doesn't exist anymore.
07:28That has been corrected because the people that were making that activity were submitted to a different regime.
07:41Now, there are no excuses.
07:42If a person has a trial on that date, it is done.
07:45We have moved forward a lot with the use of the trials by videoconference.
07:52So, when there are difficulties, we can do it in that way.
07:55And that has allowed us to move forward.
07:57However, there is still much to do.
07:59And say again, it gets complicated every time that in a stage it doesn't work.
08:08And we have to act with the police.
08:12I believe that the judicial system also includes the police, the use of the police officers and the acting of
08:19police officers.
08:21So, in this way, we have removed over 12,000 police officers that had incurred corruption action.
08:27Just last night, a person in Lada State denounced yesterday that he had been detained in a place and they
08:35had taken his money.
08:37Now, the police that did that, they don't deserve to be called police.
08:41And they have already been detained and put at the hand of justice.
08:49That has allowed us to move forward.
08:53We have moved from 7,900 aspirants to 32,000.
08:59And there, we can look for new officers, new officials.
09:04The peace squadrons, without a doubt, have helped a lot.
09:07We have over 80% of Venezuela has peace squadrons where the popular people's power intervenes.
09:17And that has allowed us to decrease crime in Venezuela to extraordinary levels, as I believe we had achieved at
09:24one time.
09:25And from the Interior Justice and Peace Ministry, the Vice President, together with the prison system,
09:32we are at the order of this commission to continue moving forward and that we can fulfill what is established
09:38in the Constitution.
09:39Thank you, Diosdado.
09:42Well, as you have said, we have advanced a lot, but it is not enough.
09:48Because we know all the actors that are part of the justice system, including the security personnel,
09:56where we have also moved forward, but there are still vices and abuse of power that must be corrected.
10:05I call that to all the organizations, the competent bodies in the matter, we act in a coordinated manner as
10:12Venezuelans of good to deal with this issue.
10:18These are daily complaints of citizens.
10:20These are complaints of all Venezuelans that aspire to maintain a relationship with respect, of respect with their organization of
10:30citizen security for the upkeeping of peace and tranquility,
10:34that they aspire to go to a tribunal to have a good treatment.
10:39I was a student of law, and I know how bad someone can be treated in a tribunal.
10:45I repeat, I know that we have moved forward a lot, but there are ills that still persist that we
10:50have not been able to overcome.
10:51And that's why the national consultation is not only to consult the academics, the specialists, those involved,
10:59but also to consult the people about their concept and their aspiration of what justice, of what daily justice is,
11:07especially in the penal region, which is the most serious because it ends with prison sentences.
11:16And I aspire to all citizens that justice, penal justice, can act with the characteristics that are contemplating our Constitution
11:28as a human right.
11:30Access to justice is a human right.
11:32So what we are talking here is a consultation about human rights.
11:37I would like also because we have been in a process of amnesty with the amnesty law that was approved
11:48by the National Assembly.
11:49The amnesty law has been very successful in terms of coverage, in terms of those that were benefited.
11:58There will always be voices that seek to disturb the process.
12:02But I've made comparisons that put this amnesty law in a very high standard in relation to what the amnesty
12:10law was in South Africa
12:12that lasted seven years, or what is the amnesty law in Spain that is still in effect since 2004.
12:19And here we are talking over 8,600 people that have been benefited by the amnesty law,
12:27which have today full freedom granted through the amnesty law.
12:32An amnesty law that emerged as a consequence of the strengthening of the political confrontation in Venezuela
12:41that led to a foreign aggression and led us to reflection.
12:46It led us to think what to do to correct the path of Venezuela.
12:54What to do so that Venezuelans can solve our differences in spaces of respect and tolerance,
13:05to eradicate hate, to eradicate intolerance, to eradicate racism, xenophobia.
13:13All this that has been present in the agenda, both of our migrants and Venezuelans that are here.
13:20And we have through the co-existent, the democratic co-existence program,
13:27so that all Venezuelans can have a space for dialogue, for political dialogue that takes forward,
13:32taken forward by the National Assembly for economic dialogue, social dialogue, cultural dialogue,
13:37so that all sectors of Venezuela can find a mirror where they can see their anguish, their happiness, their joy,
13:45but that we can recognize each other from diversity.
13:50That's what the program represents.
13:52And that is why this amnesty law that comes to an end, well, for those cases that were not contemplated,
14:01or better they were, better say, they were expressly excluded in the answer to the law.
14:07There are other spaces where they can be talked about.
14:10We have said that in the democratic co-existence program, there is a space to deal with these cases related
14:17to justice.
14:18With the commission for the reform of the penal justice, this is also a space.
14:24And I would like that the president of the National Assembly, to whom I thank for his effort,
14:29first for the process, for the approval of the amnesty law, but also what it has been all the follow
14:35-up of every case that was taken there,
14:38he can give us his impressions of what this process has been.
14:44Thank you very much.
14:47Since February 19th of this year, 2016, when it was enacted and the same day was enacted, approved and enacted
14:57the amnesty law,
14:59in these two months of implementation, not only of the law, but also of the creation of a commission for
15:06the follow-up by the part of the National Assembly
15:08that was enacted to carry out all this process of revision of the cases for amnesty, as you said.
15:13Over 12,000 people have requested the implementation of the amnesty law, which are subjects of all acts of political
15:23violence,
15:25that occurred in Venezuela since 1999 until today.
15:30with one special article where people were excluded from serious crimes, like the call for a coup d'etat or
15:41for foreign invasions against Venezuela.
15:43But I have no doubt to affirm that this has been, if not the most, one of the most laws,
15:52amnesty laws approved in the world.
15:55Imagine that over the more than 12,000 cases requested, almost 9,000 have received the corresponding benefit to that
16:03law.
16:04Some of them, many of them, even in certain circumstances, that were not subject to benefit by the amnesty law,
16:19but the commissions for follow-up work so that they could advance to resolve some of those cases.
16:26That points to not only the efficiency of the legal instrument, but also a situation that we have to take
16:36care of rapidly,
16:37which is the implementation of justice and the penal system of Venezuela.
16:42So we have to bring an end, finally, to the criminalization of poverty.
16:47We must bring an end to the situation that if you don't have money and you face a tribunal of
16:52the republic,
16:53well, you are in worse condition in regards to those people that do have money.
17:00And there are many cases. There are many examples that I will not say here.
17:07And then it is important that we have created this consultation because still we have advanced.
17:14For just putting an example, the proximity justice that comes from the elections of the justices of peace
17:20is an important solution to resolve the issues of a community among neighbors in the neighborhoods, in the squares, in
17:28the towns.
17:31But what to do, let's say, with the ordinary justice for calling it away, which is what is happening right
17:38now in the implementation of justice?
17:41Well, I'm sure that that call of the Venezuelan people so that we reach a justice system,
17:50I'm sure it will have its expressions in the conclusions of this consultation that we welcome
18:00and we are at the disposal for any situation, opposition or action that must be taken from parliament.
18:06Thank you, President.
18:08Thank you very much, Jorge.
18:09I believe that in very short time, we are giving steady stop towards the construction of fabrics that allow for
18:19dialogue in Venezuela,
18:20that allow that all of Venezuela can speak.
18:23And from there, we have also called for a pilgrimage, a national pilgrimage with that objective,
18:27that we don't fall asleep on the objective that all Venezuela can have a respectful gathering with common goals.
18:37National Union is a common goal, but it's also a good, it's also a common good as well.
18:47United, we can better face the foreign aggressions, the unity of the entire population.
18:52So this amnesty law has been based on forgiveness, reconciliation and in the re-encounter among Venezuelans,
19:01including those that are abroad.
19:03The program knows what I referred about, which we are right now looking for channels to be able to also
19:10have encounters with those that are currently abroad of our country.
19:16Well, I'm going to take this opportunity to create this commission for the great national consultation on criminal justice reform.
19:24I will call on the Attorney General to respectfully, if she can bring it to the Secretary.
19:33I know that Dr. Lavoe has wide experience in terms of national consultations on terms of human rights and I
19:42want an approach from that aspect.
19:50Or at least, when this is done, so the commission has been installed.
19:56Our liberator Farence said in Angostura, justice is the queen of republican virtues and above her rest equality and liberty.
20:10So let's go in search of the path of Bolivia in Angostura so that we can give to our people
20:16an access to justice as a human right to which all citizens must have.
20:26And that human rights allows definitely to find a justice system to deal with the necessities of the Venezuelan people.
20:37Thank you very much.
20:41So we were seeing live the installation of the commission for the national consultation on criminal justice reform that we'll
20:49take later on in Venezuela.
20:51This is part of the great co-existence program, democratic co-existence program and peaceful program that the Venezuelan government
20:58is leading forward to bring about the reconciliation of the Venezuelan people to bring together all of the Venezuelan sectors
21:04to have respectful and tolerant dialogue to solve differences that may exist.
21:09So this is the news coming from Caracas from the Mira Flores Palace, the National Commission for the Great Consultation
21:16of Criminal Justice Reform was installed and we'll have more updates.
21:21We'll stay tuned with everything that comes from that commission and we'll have to report it very quickly as soon
21:26as we have the information.
21:28So stay tuned with Tereza English.
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