Judges keep their jobs ... move to suspend two justices ambushed at the National Assembly

Caracas Daily Journal (Jeremy Morgan): Attempts to dislodge two judges from the Supreme Justice Tribunal (TSJ) ran into a procedural roadblock at the National Assembly (AN), so Justices Blanca Rosa Marmol de Leon and Carlos Oberto Velez get to keep their jobs, at least for the moment. The reason for this had little to do with the complaints levelled against them by the Republican Moral Council (CMR) and rather more to do with the council not having stuck to the rules, or perhaps at least been unaware of them.

AN President Cilia Flores picked up on this and sent the two requests back to the council with an all too typically frank admonition. The council consists of Comptroller General Clodosbaldo Russian -- he of the controversial ban on almost 400 people from standing as candidates at the November elections -- Public Defender Gabriela Ramirez, and Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz. The first two voted to remove the two judges, but Ortega Diaz did not.

Flores said that Article 33 of the Organic Law of Citizen Power stipulates that unanimity is required for any such move by the CMR against sitting judges. On the grounds that this requirement hadn't been met, Flores returned the requests to the council. While Flores made it quite clear why she was doing so, she confirmed that the council could re-submit the requests should it so wish. That implied they would presumably have to comply with the rules on quorum and unanimous voting.

The initial reaction from Russian was that he wasn't keen on having a second try at getting rid of the judges. He said the council wasn't planning to appeal against the legislature's decision because "we're not the tribunal." It only dealt with procedures, ethics and morality, he added.

All of which posed the question as to why Russian -- who's regarded as the prime mover behind the attempt to remove Marmol de Leon and Oberto Velez -- went to so much trouble, only to stumble by rushing the last fence. A file on Marmol de Leon had been open for no less than four years before she was officially notified of the fact last May 22. It then took 20 days for the CMR to process the case against her and send the interior policy committee at the legislature a report calling for her dismissal or suspension from the bench.

The case against Oberto Velez dated back to September last year. He was formally told in February this year, some three months before Marmol de Leon. In the meantime, talk in the corridors at the Assembly has it that legislators are thinking of reforming the Citizen Power Law to correct errors dating from when it was debated and approved in 2001. It's said they now deem this a matter of some urgency and some are arguing for it to be pushed up the agenda for the current season of sessions.