Law & Justice

Venezuela’s Attorney General, Luisa Ortega Diaz, filed a petition with the country’s Supreme Court last Tuesday, to allow her to prosecute the governor of the state of Guarico, Eduardo Manuitt, who has been accused of starting a fistfight against a Mayor.

Hunger striking prisoners in Venezuela obtained a legal tool to facilitate their reinsertion in society on Monday after the Supreme Court approved an injunction that could lead to a ruling that key articles of the penal code are unconstitutional.

Controversy erupted this week surrounding the investigation into the car-bomb assassination of Venezuelan State Prosecutor Danilo Anderson on November 18, 2004, after a key prosecution witness, Giovanni Vasquez De Armas recanted his initial testimony.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez promulgated the Organic Law of Police Service and National Police by presidential decree Wednesday, creating the legal framework for a single, integrated, national “revolutionary police of the People,” after nearly 6 years of legislative debate and public consultation.

The Comptroller's Commission of the Venezuelan National Assembly launched investigations this week into accusations that Argenis and Narciso Chávez, two brothers of President Hugo Chávez, used front persons to purchase several farms in the western state of Barinas.

Venezuelan Minister of Justice Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, announced Monday a plan to implement a new penitentiary model, with the aim of humanizing the prison system in response to thousands of hunger striking prisoners.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced Thursday the founding of the National Council of Citizen Security and Regional Citizen Security Coordination to supervise the construction of an integrated national police force.

Juan Barreto, the Mayor of Caracas, transferred control of Caracas's Metropolitan Police to the  Ministry of Justice and the Interior Wednesday. The changeover comes amidst several government initiatives so far this year aimed at reforming Venezuela's police forces.

Venezuela's Foreign Minister, Nicolas Maduro denied on Saturday that a Venezuelan lawyer, Moisés Maionica, who pleaded guilty to being an "unregistered foreign agent" in a Miami federal court, was acting on behalf of the Venezuelan government in the so-called "suitcase scandal."

Medea Benjamin, spokesperson for CODEPINK: Women for Peace, a well known anti-war group in the US, and Jesús Marrero from the Committee for the Extradition of Posada Carriles in Venezuela, held a joint press conference in Caracas today to demand the arrest and extradition to Venezuela of Luis Posada Carriles.