More on the Venezuelan constitutional debate
My student Kelby continues to follow the Venezuelan constitutional debate and sent me news about article 337 (part of the state of emergency proposal). The president of the National Assembly proposed adding more individual rights when a state of emergency is declared: the rights to defense, personal integrity, to be judged by “jueces naturales” (which I take to mean not automatically by an ad hoc, possibly military court) and not to be sentenced for more than 30 years (which is still a really long time!).
With any luck the Assembly will also address the lack of legislative and judicial power vis-à-vis the executive once the state of emergency is declared.
2 comments:
Next, I am quoting Information Minister, William Lara, explaining the new changes in the 337 in what refers to freedom of expression:
“Let’s assume that Venezuela is invaded and a General is captured. Then if the General is interrogated and asked what the Venezuelan army plans are and where are they keeping their weapons, then the general WILL HAVE to confess because the right to inform is current and legal. However if the President decrees a State of Exception, then the General wouldn’t have to confess, because the right to inform wouldn’t be legal.”
"with any luck"
yeah right....and PDVSA is evolving towards a model for a state run enterprise.
Besides, even if they allow "due process" guarantees on this state of exception, on the "micro" side of "due process" they expand police powers, loosening the standards for warrantless arrests and seizures.
Daniel does a good job of picking apart the individual amendments in his blog.
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