The Attorney General and the Venezuelan President
www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, March 16, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel
VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: According to Article 285 of the Constitution, the Attorney General of Venezuela has to guarantee that public officers who have committed criminal acts against the State (as defined by the Law) are rapidly and diligently brought to trial.
During the Presidency of Carlos Andres Perez, then Attorney General Ramon Escovar, did just that, bringing the President down by means of a legal action without violence. That was democracy in action. The crime committed by Perez was to give money from a secret account, traditionally handled by Presidents (including Chavez) to the President of Nicaragua, Mrs. Violeta Chamorro, to be used for her physical safeguarding ... the amount involved was some $4 million.
During this administration the Attorney General has received 11 accusations against President Chavez and ... so far ... has not acted on any one of them. Some of the claims against Chavez are quite substantial, and have even been publicly admitted by the President. For example, he admitted having diverted the immense amount of $4 billion away from the Macroeconomic Stabilization Fund (FIEM) to pay Christmas bonuses and salaries to public employees ... against the laws of the country ... this money did not even belong entirely to the Government.
According to the law which regulates the fund, this money was partly owned by PDVSA and by the governments of regional States.
The arbitrary, unilateral decision to use the money is technically considered as theft in Venezuelan Law (Peculado de uso).
Nevertheless, the Attorney General did not act ... he is an unconditional follower of Chavez. His performance has received widespread criticism due to his lack of independence and integrity.
Another open (and proven) violation of the Law by the President, of having received one million dollars from a Spanish bank ... a year after becoming President ... has not been acted upon by the Attorney General. This is what impunity means ... and it is one of the many reasons why this government of Hugo Chavez is no longer legitimate.
However, something is starting to happen.
A Mr. Pedro Sanoja, an Attorney General subordinate, in charge of looking at the Venezuelan-Cuban petroleum agreement, has just sent a letter to his boss telling him (this is a free translation of rather obscure legalese):
"I am respectfully writing to you to inform you that, based on my investigations related to possible irregular actions related to the supply and sale of crude oil and products to Cuba, within the framework of the Agreement of October 30, 2000, I have reached the conclusion that, according to the Article 49 of the Constitution and the Article 130 of the Penal Code, President Hugo Chavez Frias should be indicted for having committed crimes described in Law. Given the high rank of the public officer involved, I request your instructions relating to where the indictment should take place....."
The specific crime is not defined in the letter, as it will only be made known at the time of the indictment. However, we can speculate that some of the violations of the law include the decision by the President to go ahead with the agreement without consulting and obtaining the approval of the National Assembly ... as well as the clearly damaging clauses contained in the agreement, giving Cuba huge subsidies at the expense of PDVSA and of the Venezuelan nation. The agreement, in fact, constitutes a clear act of treason against Venezuelan national interests and can only be explained on the basis of the unusual and asymmetrical friendship between Chavez and Castro.
The action by his subordinate puts Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez in a very tight spot. Up until now he has killed all accusations against the President coming to his office as being from "political enemies." Now he has a formal action taken from someone within his own office ... an action already known to the public ... the whole country is watching to see what he will do now.
My guess is that he will probably try to do nothing. He'll call his subordinate to his office and have a "heart-to-heart conversation, either convince him not to rock the boat or, if he can not, will dismiss the subordinate.
Scandals in Venezuela usually last between four days and one week ... the time required for the next scandal to be brought to the limelight. I've been fighting corruption in my country for more than 12 years now, and I know this to be the case.
Today, however, there is a better chance that something will really happen, because the President is already highly-weakened by multiple accusations of impropriety regarding low transparency in the use of public funds, human rights violations, unduly friendly relations with the Colombian guerrilla and a tolerant stance regarding terrorism.
Many of his followers ... including the shrewd and unprincipled Attorney General ... might be starting to feel that the time to break away from the President is getting near, and it might be better to secure a place in future political scenarios.
This feeling of uncertainty among Chavez' followers is growing as August gets nearer.
The Referendum that can not be denied will come around that month, no matter how hard the government tries to delay it. And ... when it comes ... the President will be soundly rejected by an estimated 75% of the population.
The government is already claiming that, if that happens, the President should be able to be a candidate for elections that should immediately take place.
Obviously this is preposterous ... it would be equal to say that the husband who is divorced by his indignant wife would be eligible to compete for her hand in the next wedding. The bride does not want him! Why is it so difficult for some people to understand they are not wanted?
The President and the Attorney General are coming closer to their moment of truth.
Will the Attorney General indict the President and save whatever remains of his highly damaged reputation?
...or will he go down with him, faithful to the end, like the little guy in Francis Coppola's Dracula?
Gustavo Coronel is the founder and president of Agrupacion Pro Calidad de Vida (The Pro-Quality of Life Alliance), a Caracas-based organization devoted to fighting corruption and the promotion of civic education in Latin America, primarily Venezuela. A member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), following nationalization of Venezuela's oil industry, Coronel has worked in the oil industry for 28 years in the United States, Holland, Indonesia, Algiers and in Venezuela. He is a Distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa (USA) where he was a Trustee from 1987 to 1999. Coronel led the Hydrocarbons Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington DC for 5 years. The author of three books and many articles on Venezuela ("Curbing Corruption in Venezuela." Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 3, July, 1996, pp. 157-163), he is a fellow of Harvard University and a member of the Harvard faculty from 1981 to 1983. In 1998, he was presidential election campaign manager for Henrique Salas Romer and now lives in retirement on the Caribbean island of Margarita where he runs a leading Hotel-Resort. You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email ppcvicep@telcel.net.ve