Foundation stone of any fair system of justice absent when National Assembly voted on the Russian ban

Caracas Daily Journal (Jeremy Morgan): The principle of innocence until proven guilty appears to have gotten overlooked when the National Assembly (AN) dutifully voted for a resolution to support Comptroller General Clodosbaldo Russian's judicially dubious ban against people running for election in November. AN deputy Carlos Escarra, who's described as a specialist in constitutional law, led the argument for backing the ban. He reminded everyone that the Liberator, Simon Bolivar, had wanted the death penalty for people who stole from the public purse.

Escarra claimed that the 386 people on Russian's list had been barred from standing as candidates "because they're thieves, they took money away from the national patrimony." This was not quite the case in law, as a handful of dissident deputies subsequently pointed out.

Deputy Ismael Garcia of Podemos, the social democratic party which once sided with the government and is now in opposition, pointed to Article 65 of the Constitution. This, as he and numerous others have noted, states that people can't run for elected office if they've been convicted by a court of criminal offenses while they were exercising public office. García went on to observe that even a report by Russian's own office concluded that the "irregularities" supposedly committed by the people in question had not caused "patrimonial damage" to the country. If they were thieves, he asked, why weren't they behind bars?

Escarra's response was to raise the case of opposition Mayor Leopoldo Lopez of Chacao, who's alleged to have taken funds from his mother while she was at the state oil corporation, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). This accusation has yet to be proven in court, but Lopez is nevertheless on the list. Earlier this week, Lopez and his wife were held at the airport for two hours by shadowy officials on their return from the United States, where'd he spoken out about the ban.

Troublesome deputy Luis Tascon chipped in, as might have been expected after being sent to the doghouse for persisting in questions about alleged corruption at the Infrastructure Ministry. What he wanted to know was how many times cases had been brought to the chamber and nothing had happened.

Garcia is acquiring a reputation as the chamber's resident troublemaker. He asked for the list of legislators to be reviewed because as he understood things, a person who had been "inhabilitated" was a member of the chamber. That individual, deputy Regulo Hernandez, reportedly insists the ban against him has been lifted.

Earlier, Garcia had claimed AN employees had sat in the chamber during a recent debate, and even taken part in a vote. At the time, this was laughed off as yet another bee in Garcia's bonnet, but he's plugging for a full investigation.