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Bolivarian leader Nicolás Maduro has announced that the National Constituent Assembly (ANC), a forum convened unilaterally, and imposed by force by Chavismo in the political crisis of 2017, will cease its functions in December of this year. The measure has been discussed and approved within the ANC itself, based on a proposal made by the constituent member Pedro Carreño. Diosdado Cabello, head of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela and president of the Chavista deliberative forum, said that the Assembly "will continue to fulfill its functions until December 31, 2020."
Maduro, for his part, has commented that the body will be in charge of issuing "a set of decrees" before the parliamentary elections organized by the regime for December this year. The president made the statement on the national chain during a meeting of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela organized through Zoom, which marked the public return of Diosdado Cabello, who is recovering from the contagion of covid-19 from home.
Maduro's announcement has been interpreted as a flight forward: although there is still nothing firm, the opposition believes that it may be an attempt by Chavismo to organize a referendum to approve a new Constitution as a result of the constituent debates - or modify the current one to strengthen their hegemonic interests-, while organizing, on their terms, the new parliamentary elections with minority and moderate sectors of the opposition willing to participate. A move to stabilize the country, relieve international pressure and regain internal and external credibility.
A few days ago, 21 opposition organizations linked to the interim presidency of Juan Guaidó announced their decision not to participate in an electoral consultation that they consider fraudulent, advantageous and asymmetrical, similar, according to what they say, to the one that made possible the presidential re-election of Maduro on 30 May 2018. The elections at that time were unknown by the United States, Europe and the vast majority of Latin American nations, in addition to the opposition itself, in which many parties were prevented from participating.
Chavismo has agreed with the so-called National Dialogue Table to establish the new rectors of the National Electoral Council, giving these small parties some spaces within it. In this context, the resignation of one of them, Rafael Simón Jiménez, opened the way to the immediate appointment of Leonardo Morales. This agreement has excluded the National Assembly, the only body with constitutional powers to advance this process, dominated at this time by the loyal opposition to Juan Guaidó, the president of the opposition body.
With this "win-win" agreement with Maduro that has not been formally announced, the small parties of the Dialogue Table could expand their current tiny dimensions and even attempt some modifications in the Chavista management "from within", as many of them usually do. say. In a scenario of high abstention, Chavismo could retain control of the new parliament, based on its powerful political-military organizational apparatus. This time it would be about putting on the democratic hat, arguing that they had held a plural consultation. This means breaking through in the current hermetic context of international siege.
In his televised statement, Nicolás Maduro dedicated himself to highlighting "what many people do not know" about the Venezuelan reality: "More than 100 organizations from across the ideological spectrum" are going to participate in this parliamentary consultation. In addition, he said that historically Chavismo "has organized 21 electoral consultations, of which it has emerged the winner in 19, also winning the presidency of the republic and most of the governorships and mayors of this country fairly."
The National Constituent Assembly of 2017 was convened unilaterally by Chavismo in the midst of the serious public order crisis of that year, in which there were massive protests against Maduro in all the streets of the country, lasting four months, with a 117 demonstrators died and thousands of people injured. The outbreak was triggered after the Supreme Court of Justice, dominated by Chavismo, issued, on March 30, 2017, a ruling in which it assumed legislative functions and annulled all the powers of the National Assembly, dominated by a wide margin by the Venezuelan opposition.
For the Constituent Assembly, convened by Maduro in May, the Government drew up its own electoral bases, unacceptable to the opposition perspective, with delegates elected in some circuits in the second degree. He called for elections without organizing a consultative referendum for that purpose, as required by the 1999 Constitution and as Hugo Chávez himself did at the time. The body was elected with the exclusive vote of the Chavista militancy and under the fervent protest of millions of people. On the day the consultation was held, there were 19 deaths in the streets of the country in protests.
Assumed as "plenipotentiary and supra-constitutional" by the membership of the PSUV and the military leadership, the Constituent Assembly has become a kind of parallel Legislative Power, protecting the country's regulatory framework and issuing some "constitutional laws", such as the famous Law against Hate , one of its best known repressive instruments that criminalizes dissent because it establishes severe penalties, between 10 and 20 years in prison, against anything considered incitement to hatred.
The contents and debates of the hypothetical new Chavista constitutional project have had very little importance, and the ANC itself has notably lowered its public concern at this time. Even the Chavista constituent Hermann Escarra went so far as to affirm a few months ago that the new constitutional text of Chavismo is already ready and is only waiting for its opportunity to be approved.