The Acting President of the Republic, Delcy Rodríguez, announced the convening of a National Consultation for a New System of Justice, with the aim of transforming the criminal and social approach in the country.
This initiative will be under the responsibility of the Commission for the Revolution for Justice, chaired by the Sectoral Vice President for Politics, Citizen Security, and Peace, Diosdado Cabello, along with the Program for Democratic Coexistence and Peace.
During her intervention, she emphasized the need to reformulate the current punitive approach: “I also request alternative measures to punishment and incarceration for our inmates within the framework of a categorization of crimes.” To this regard, she detailed that she has maintained conversations with the Attorney General, Tarek William Saab, in order to advance in the application of justice under modalities that do not depend exclusively on imprisonment.
As part of her speech at the solemn session of opening of judicial activities for 2026, she presented figures on the prison situation, highlighting that 81.59% of the inmates are first-timers (people who are deprived of their liberty for the first time for committing a crime) and a 63.51% only have a basic education.
Given this situation, she requested a greater presence of the State in critical areas: “I ask you for the Venezuelan State to have social and economic intervention for crime prevention… I ask for more social intervention in health, in education, in the most vulnerable sectors of the Venezuelan population.”
Regarding the functioning of the current system, Rodríguez noted that a 75.55% of those convicted admitted to the crimes committed. She explained that, in the current context, this action has become a way to expedite judicial processes: “Given the procedural delays and the costs of the process, the solution is to admit the facts to reduce the time of deprivation of liberty,” she pointed out.
Finally, the high-officier reiterated the call for the collaboration of all sectors for the development of the national consultation, insisting on the creation of clear programs on the prevention of violence in the most needy communities.
