The Attorney General’s Office presented on Tuesday in a statement, the legal arguments to appeal to the appropriate authorities, for the claims of the National Assembly to violate the Constitution of the Republic.
Following, is the full text:
Statement of the Attorney General of the Republic on the unconstitutional claim of the National Assembly to convene the President of the Republic to appear before the plenary, in the context of a supposed impeachment.
Regarding the claims of the National Assembly to convene the President of the Republic, Nicolas Maduro, to appear before the plenary, in the context of a supposed impeachment, the Attorney General’s Office informs the following to the country:
FIRST.- All accusations of the National Assembly are null due to the contumacious contempt to the judgments of the Supreme Court held by the legislative body. Therefore the call that made the Board of the National Assembly to the President of the Republic to appear before the plenary, does not have any legal status.
SECOND.- It is important to note that the National Assembly has no power to summon the President to appear before the plenary, nor before its committees, and much less based on a figure of political impeachment that does not exist in the Venezuelan legal system.
The Attorney General’s Office bases this assertion on the following constitutional and legal arguments:
1. Article 222 of the Constitution provides that the National Assembly may exercise its duties of political control through interpellations, among other mechanisms, being able to declare the political responsibility of public officials, for this it must request to the Citizen Power to bring the corresponding actions to make its accountability effective.
2. The law that defines public officers it that of the Statute of the Civil Service, which states in Article 19 that public officials will be of career or free appointment or removal. Also, Article 20 stipulates that high level officers will be the Executive Vice President, the Ministers, among others, not including in any case to the President of the Republic.
3. Obviously, the President of the Republic is not a career civil servant nor one of free appointment and removal, nor is a senior official. The President of the Republic has a charge elected by the People and is responsible for directing the Public Administration in its capacity as Head of State and Head of Government.
4. The Law on the Regime for Public Hearing of officials and Officers and individuals to the National Assembly or its committees, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and the Statute of the Civil Service not included within its articles that the President may be subject to this mechanism of political control. Furthermore, the Regulations of Interior and Debates of the National Assembly, in Article 115 thereof, in correspondence with the Constitution, establishes guidelines for the appearance of senior public officials, specifically pointing to the Vice Executive and Ministers, excluding the President as a subject of possible appearances.
5. In addition, the Constitution in Article 187 Ordinal 10 does not attribute competences to the National Assembly for the implementation of a vote of no confidence in the President of the Republic, but restricts it to the figure of Executive Vice President and Ministers or ministers.
The National Assembly rashly intends to fraud to law and the Constitution, when it tries to apply a figure of impeachment to the President of the Republic that does not exist in the Constitution nor in the rest of the Venezuelan legal system, with the clear intention of consummating a Coup d’ Etat.
As it is known, the President of the Republic is vested with the powers as Head of State; Administration of the National Treasury; Commander in Chief of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces; Head of Goverment ; and also directs the Foreign Policy of the State and chairs the Council of National Defense; therefore, the exercise of such vital skills can not be subject to the vagaries of the own tirade of political forces who are circumstantially vying in the society and the Parliament.
Finally, the Attorney General of the Republic, exercising its constitutional and legal powers, and up to its ultimate powers, will activate a lawsuit against the National Assembly to the appropriate authorities, in order so that the most effective measures are taken to the comprehensive protection of the State and the Nation, given the persistence of unconstitutional actions by the legislative body that, as a set, make a pretense of a Coup d’ Etat, a systematic attack against the Constitution, and a sustained threat to the peace, development and the stability of the Nation.
Caracas, October 31, 2016
Reinaldo Muñoz
Attorney General of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
AHORA:
