On Tuesday, the Venezuelan Parliament, controlled by the opposition, authorized the prosecution of President Nicolás Maduro for alleged corruption in the Odebrecht case, although its decisions are null according to the highest court of justice in that country.
In a session without access to the press, the opponents welcomed the request for a pretrial petition made by judges of the parallel supreme court of justice in exile, which also demanded the capture of Maduro on April 9th in Bogota.
There is sufficient evidence to continue with the judicial process that is followed by acts of corruption,”
says the resolution, approved by 105 legislators and rejected by the only two ruling parties present in the plenary.
The first Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) was accused of serving the government when it declared the parliament in contempt of office in 2016 when the opposition party assumed 112 of the 167 seats, thus systematically nullifying its agreements.
Experts believe that this is a political rather than legal action because of procedural flaws, since a these trials must be approved by the Full Chamber of 32 magistrates, and also by the institutional control of the ruling party.
After four months of violent opposition protests that left about 125 dead, the Parliament appointed 13 titular magistrates and 20 substitutes to replace part of the official TSJ in July 2017. However, they went into exile in Colombia, Panama, Chile and the United States, after Maduro threatened to imprison them. Three of them came to be arrested.
These magistrates, who sit virtually from exile, requested the trial after receiving an accusation against Maduro presented by the formerprosecutor general Luisa Ortega, who fled in August 2017 after being dismissed by the ruling Constituent Assembly that governs the country with absolute powers.
The legislative head, Omar Barboza, believes that with a people collecting food from garbage, it would be a betrayal of the popular mandate to ignore the request of the magistrates appointed by that chamber.
The chavista attorney general, Tarek William Saab, said the legislative decision is not legitimate. Last year, Maduro already faced a pre-trial process in the Parliament, also symbolic, accused of the socioeconomic debacle suffered by the oil exporting country, with food shortages and hyperinflation.
Despite popular unrest, he seeks re-election in the disputed early elections on May 20th, that won’t be recognized by countries in America and Europe for lack of guarantees.