The Supreme Justice Tribunal is the highest court of law in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and is the head of the judicial branch. As the independence of the Venezuelan judiciary under the regime of Nicolas Maduro is questioned, there have recently been many disputes as to whether this court is legitimate.
The Attorney General of the Republic is the head of the Attorney General's Office(Fiscalía General de la República, FGR) and the Federal Public Ministry of the United Mexican States, an institution belonging to the Federal Government's constitutional autonomous organism that is responsible for the investigation and prosecution of federal crimes. The office is governed mainly by the Constitution of Mexico on its article 102, and the Organic Law of the Attorney General's Office.
Judge María Lourdes Afiuni Mora is a Venezuelan judge. She was head of the 31st Control Court of Caracas before she was arrested in 2009 on charges of corruption after ordering the conditional release on bail of businessman Eligio Cedeño, who then fled the country. She was moved to house arrest in Caracas in February 2011, and granted parole in June 2013, but she is still barred from practicing law, leaving the country, or using her bank account or social networks.
The Ibero-American Association of Public Prosecutors is composed of 21 countries and is aimed at closer ties of cooperation, solidarity and professional enrichment between the ibero-American prosecutors.
Luisa Marvelia Ortega Díaz is a Venezuelan lawyer. Between December 2007 and August 2017, she served as the Prosecutor General of Venezuela. A proponent of the Chavismo ideology, Ortega Díaz was fired as Prosecutor General on 5 August 2017 by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice and the Constituent National Assembly (ANC) promoted by Nicolás Maduro, following a breaking with the Maduro government as a result of the 2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis in the context of the crisis in Venezuela. This dismissal was rejected by the opposition-led National Assembly of Venezuela, arguing that only that institution had the power to carry out said removal according to the Constitution, and cataloging the Prosecutor as the only legitimate authority of the Public Ministry. As a result, she is called by the National Assembly, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice of Venezuela in exile and some media outlets as the Prosecutor General of Venezuela in exile.
The Defensoría del Pueblo de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela is a state-funded human rights agency in Venezuela responsible for investigating complaints against any public authority. Along with the Public Ministry and the Comptroller-General of the Republic, the office forms the 'citizens’ power' branch of the Government of Venezuela. The three bodies collectively form the Republican Moral Council, a body established to promote moral and ethical behaviour by public officials.
The 2017 Venezuelan protests began in late January following the abandonment of Vatican-backed dialogue between the Bolivarian government and the opposition. The series of protests originally began in February 2014 when hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans protested due to high levels of criminal violence, inflation, and chronic scarcity of basic goods because of policies created by the Venezuelan government though the size of protests had decreased since 2014. Following the 2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, protests began to increase greatly throughout Venezuela.
On 29 March 2017, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) of Venezuela took over legislative powers of the National Assembly. The Tribunal, mainly supporters of President Nicolás Maduro, also restricted the immunity granted to the Assembly's members, who mostly belonged to the opposition.
Constituent Assembly elections were held in Venezuela on 30 July 2017 to elect the members of the 2017 Constituent National Assembly. Unlike the 1999 Constituent National Assembly, which was assembled following a referendum, the 2017 election was convened by the presidential decree of President Nicolás Maduro.
The Constituent National Assembly was a constituent assembly elected in 2017 to draft a new constitution for Venezuela. Its members were elected in a special 2017 election that was condemned by over forty mostly Latin American and Western states. The Democratic Unity Roundtable—the opposition to the incumbent ruling party—also boycotted the election claiming that the Constituent Assembly was "a trick to keep [the incumbent ruling party] in power." Since the opposition did not participate in the election, the incumbent Great Patriotic Pole, dominated by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, won almost all seats in the assembly by default.
The Public Ministry of Nicaragua ensures effective criminal prosecution. Established in 2000, the ministry exercises vigilance and protection of society and victims of crime by promoting the investigation of criminal acts and criminal actions against offenders of the law that violate public order and security. It is an independent institution that operates via a functional and administrative organic autonomy and is subordinated only to the Political Constitution of the Republic and the laws. The Attorney General of the Republic heads the ministry.
Tarek William Saab Halabi is a Venezuelan politician, lawyer and poet. He is a leader of the Fifth Republic Movement (MVR) party founded by Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela, who publicly called him "The Revolution's Poet". He was the Governor of Anzoátegui from 2004 to 2012, and a member of the Committee for Justice and Truth since 2013. In December 2014, he was elected "People's Defender", or Ombudsman, by the National Assembly for 2014–2021 term. Saab was appointed as President of the Republican Moral Council of Venezuela by the People's Power in 2015. On 5 August 2017, he was appointed as Prosecutor General of Venezuela by the National Constituent Assembly in substitution of Luisa Ortega Diaz.
Fernando Alberto Albán Salazar was a Venezuelan–Colombian activist, lawyer, politician, and prominent figure within the Justice First opposition party. Albán served as a councilman of the Libertador Municipality of Caracas from 2012 until his death in office in 2018.
The Prosecution Ministry is a constitutional body integrated into the Judiciary of Spain, but with full autonomy. It is entrusted with defending the rule of law, the rights of the citizens, and public interest, as well as watching over the independence of the courts of justice.
The Tumeremo massacre occurred on 8 March 2016, in which 28 miners were murdered and kidnapped in the town of Tumeremo, located in the state of Bolívar, Venezuela. On the night of 4 March 2016, they were in the Atenas mine, on the border between the municipalities of Sifontes and Roscio, a poor area where, like most of the southeast of the country, the main economic activity is mining.
The Local Committees for Supply and Production are food distribution committees promoted by the Venezuelan government in which the communities themselves supply and distribute the priority foods through a house-to-house delivery method. It was established in 2016 by President Nicolás Maduro in response to the ongoing shortages in Venezuela. The committees have been subject of complaints about corruption, political use, delays, poor food quality and price increases without prior warning. This service is a subsidiary of the Ministry of Popular Power for Food.
A preliminary examination by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to analyze possible crimes against humanity committed in Venezuela is currently open. In February 2018, the ICC announced that it would open preliminary probes into alleged crimes against humanity performed by Venezuelan authorities since at least April 2017. A preliminary examination was previously opened in 2006, but closed after concluding that the requirements to start an investigation had not been met.
This is the list of members elected in the 1999 Constituent National Assembly of Venezuela.
Juan Pablo Pernalete Llovera was a student and basketball player killed during the 2017 Venezuelan protests. On 24 May the Attorney General of Venezuela, Luisa Ortega Díaz, declared that an investigation by the Public Ministry concluded that Pernalete died as the result of the impact in his chest of a tear gas canister fired by a National Guardsman. While government officials and pro-government outlets initially alleged that Pernalete had been killed with a captive bolt pistol by fellow protesters, in 2021 Tarek William Saab, Luisa Ortega's successor, acknowledged that Pernelte was killed by a tear gas canister fired by the National Guard.
Orlando Figuera Esparragoza was a young Venezuelan attacked during the 2017 protests in the country. Before his death, Orlando blamed the attack on a group of people who were feuding with him for work-related reasons: "Malandrín"; "Pecas"; "Menor"; "Oriental" and "Mono". The day after Orlando Figuera's death, Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz denied that Figuera was the victim of a hate crime or attacked for being a Chavista, as alleged by the government version. As of 2022, no person has been tried for Figuera's murder.
