The renewal of the 32 magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), agreed at the negotiating table between Chavismo and a sector of the opposition, advanced this Tuesday with the start of interviews with 127 civil society candidates seeking to join the Judicial Nominations Committee.
The process is part of the commitments reached in the first cycle of talks, which began in August, and contemplates changes in the makeup of the body in charge of evaluating and preselecting candidates for the highest court. The judicial renewal was resumed in the agreements announced on September 25, when the delegations also agreed to create a council of jurists to review the credentials of the candidates.
The Preliminary Commission of the National Assembly, chaired by the official deputy Giuseppe Alessandrello, began the interviews with the candidates and plans to conclude this phase on October 16. Upon completion, he will present to the parliamentary plenary the list of people eligible to occupy the 12 positions reserved for representatives of civil society, he reported.
The 12 selected will join the 11 deputies who make up the preliminary commission to form the Judicial Nominations Committee. This body will have the responsibility of examining the profiles of those who aspire to become magistrates and preparing a preselection that will be sent to Parliament, in charge of the final appointment.
They seek greater judicial independence
The National Assembly published the list of the 127 candidates on October 10, after a call that remained open between the 2nd and the 9th of that month. Among the candidates are lawyers, academics and representatives of civil organizations, such as Carlos Trapani, general coordinator of the Community Learning Centers (Cecodap), and university professor Guillermo Tell Aveledo Coll.
The expansion of civil representation was approved by Parliament on September 1, when reformed the Organic Law of the TSJ to increase the number of civil society members on the committee from 11 to 12. With the change, the body will be made up of 23 members: 12 civil representatives and 11 deputies. The modification was presented as part of the agreements with the opposition that participates in the talks and seeks to contribute to independence in the selection of magistrates.
However, the selection schedule has generated differences on the date on which the civil representatives should be defined. While it was initially proposed that they would be designated and sworn in on October 15, deputy Luis Florido pointed out that the number of applications could extend the process until the 20th, with the installation of the committee scheduled for October 21.
The renewal process of the TSJ occurs amid questions about the independence of the Venezuelan Judiciary. Sectors of the opposition accuse the current court of favoring Chavismo, especially after it validated the proclamation of Nicolás Maduro as winner of the 2024 presidential elections, whose results were denounced as fraudulent by the opposition.
