Venezuelan Enabling Act (2013)

In 2013, Nicolás Maduro, the newly elected President of Venezuela, was determined to continue the socialist economic program of his predecessor, Hugo Chavez. In order to do so, and cement his power as the new leader, Maduro demanded that the National Assembly – Venezuela’s national legislative body – grant him the power to rule by decree. Among Maduro’s pretexts for the passage of the law was the need to combat corruption, as well as the need to combat what he and his movement saw as an “economic war” being waged against the country by businessmen and the United States.

The law, which required a supermajority vote in order to pass, was enacted narrowly after an opposition lawmaker was stripped of their authority for alleged participation in corrupt activities. The law gave Maduro sweeping powers and stated that it was to remain in effect for one year unless renewed, which occurred repeatedly until 2018. In 2019, an election widely viewed by the international community as fraudulent led to a dispute over Maduro’s continuance in office.

To My Compatriot
DIOSDADO CABELLO RONDÓN
Speaker of the National Assembly

Mr. President:

Please receive our Bolivarian, Revolutionary, Socialist and Chavista greetings, which I ask you to extend to all the Deputies of our National Assembly.

I hereby officially submit to this legislative body, the Statement of Motives and Draft of the LAW AUTHORIZING THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC TO ISSUE DECREES WITH VALUE AND FORCE OF LAW IN THE MATTER WHICH ARE DELEGATED, in accordance with the provisions of Article 203 and numeral 8 of Article 236 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

The present request obeys to the imperious necessity of the construction of a system of popular government that allows the acceleration and recovery of the national economy, the operation efficiency or nothing and the fight against corruption, consecrating the must to forge the humanist culture in all the scopes and thus to dignify the public servant, making them increasingly useful in the performance of their functions, especially the attachment to the principles of solidarity, honesty, responsibility, work vocation, love for others, willingness to improve and fight for the National Liberation of the Homeland, inspired by ethics and socialist morality.

Likewise, within the fundamental aspects of this project we can highlight, among others, the reforms of the legal instruments destined to deepen and strengthen the mechanisms of penal, administrative, civil and disciplinary sanctions to avoid injuries or the inadequate management of the public patrimony and to prevent acts of corruption, in order to guarantee and protect the interests of the State and the People in its different levels of Government and Popular Power.

Finally, there is an urgent need to approve an Enabling Law that empowers the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to issue Decrees with the Rank, Value and Force of Law in the areas against corruption and the economic war unleashed against the Homeland.

Since this is a propitious occasion, allow me to convey to you and to all the Deputies that make up the Legislative Branch of the Republic, my most sincere gratitude, consideration and esteem.

Chavez lives, the Homeland continues!!!!,
Until Victory Forever!!!!!,
Independence and Socialist Homeland!!!,
We Will Live and We Will Win!!!!

NICOLÁS MADURO MOROS
PRESIDENT OF THE BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM OF THE ENABLING LAW

Venezuela, as a Democratic and Social State of Law and Justice, advocates as superior values to its legal system and its actions, life, liberty, justice, equality, solidarity, democracy, social responsibility and in general, the preeminence of human rights, ethics and political pluralism; therefore, the State guarantees the defense and development of the person and respect for his dignity; the democratic exercise of the popular will, the constitution of a just, peace-loving society, the promotion of prosperity and welfare of the people, and the guarantee of the fulfillment of the principles, rights and duties recognized and enshrined in the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

The Venezuelan State has the unavoidable duty to strengthen and consolidate institutions that guarantee the full protection of public assets and the promotion of ethical and moral values and principles in Public Administration, so that public servants in the exercise of their functions are oriented towards a vision that ensures absolute respect and compliance with legal and ethical provisions, to meet the needs of the Venezuelan people.

In order to guarantee constitutional rights and inspired by El Libertador Simón Bolívar when he said: “My constancy and my desires for the good of the Homeland will make me undertake everything, and I will work incessantly for it, without regard to difficulties”, the President of the Republic requests before the National Assembly, in accordance with the Articles 236 numeral 8 and 203 of the Magna Carta in matters against corruption and against the economic war that stalks the Homeland, where the guidelines are established, purposes and framework of the matters that are delegated with the rank and value of law, within a fixed term for the exercise of such special power.

Taking into consideration what is established in the PLAN OF THE COUNTRY, conceived by the Eternal Commander, President Hugo Chávez Frías and in the 12 STRATEGIC LINES OF WORK, which include the construction of a system of popular government, the consolidation and acceleration of the recovery of the national economy, the efficiency or nothing operation and the fight against corruption, enshrining the need to forge the humanistic culture of public service in all areas and thus dignify the public servant, making him increasingly useful in the performance of his functions: In this way they highlight the traditional values of the Venezuelan people, especially the attachment to the principles of solidarity, honesty, responsibility, vocation of work, love for others, willingness to overcome and fight for the National Liberation of the Homeland and the Indo-American and Afro-descendant Peoples; through its permanent promotion and through the available means to combat the anti-values that foment individualism, the exploitation of man by man, mercantilism, consumerism and the perverse accumulation of capital, typical of the predatory capitalist system. All this, with the purpose of deepening and executing the mechanisms of penal, administrative, civil and disciplinary sanctions, as the case may be, for those who incur in administrative and political inefficiency and in acts of corruption, as well as in conducts that attempt against the economic system.

The State sees the need to reinforce the Venezuelan people’s moral heritage through the promotion of the values of Bolivarian socialism, ethics, morals, humanist training and self-education, conscious discipline based on criticism and self-criticism, the practice of solidarity and love, the awareness of social duty and the fight against corruption and bureaucracy, through the social comptroller as a strategy for the exercise of the power and capacity of the people, which allows to supervise the management of the organs and entities of the Public Administration, in the management of public funds, in the revolutionary efficiency and in the achievement of the goals of public management.

Let us highlight the issue of corruption: what is corruption? This question requires, first of all, a brief linguistic exploration. The magnificent Dictionary of Spanish Usage by María Moliner says that it is the action of corrupting or corrupting oneself and also refers to the word bribery. And in the entry referring to the verb corrupt in its fourth meaning, the one we are interested in here defines: Undermining the morale of the public administration and civil servants.

Let us remember that in colloquial language we speak of broken health. Corruption is, then, a disease that affects public health, the social body as a whole. By the way, that great political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli used to say: A gangrenous limb is not cured with lavender water – it is cut off. In a similar sense, the Liberator Simón Bolívar opined that gangrene cannot be cured with palliatives. It is clear that both Machiavelli and Bolivar refer to situations of decomposition that require radical and decisive political action in order to find the remedy that will allow the full recovery of public health. If there is no public health, a Republic marches unfailingly towards its dissolution. Preserving public health is a matter of life and death for a Republic: there are no half measures.

In this sense, on January 12, 1824, from Lima, the Liberator issued a new decree of war to the death. But, this time, against corruption. Simón Bolívar was a staunch enemy of administrative corruption and a staunch defender of probity and transparency in the use of public funds, of Republican Ethics with a capital E. Bolivar was a zealous practitioner of republican virtue: he thought and acted guided by the principle that nothing is above the common good.

It is appropriate to dwell on this document of Father Bolivar in order to radically re-launch the war to the death against corruption in all fields. Certainly, embezzlement, as a crime, has deep historical roots among us, but this does not mean that we resign ourselves to it as if it were a fatality from which we will never be able to free ourselves. On the contrary, we must touch the national soul, the popular spirit so that, together, we can fight tirelessly until we succeed in eradicating this evil at its roots.

At the beginning of the decree, Bolivar states with absolute clarity, directly and without ambiguity, the problem in all its seriousness. Likewise, he also states the need for corrective measures that could only be radical:

Bearing in mind: 1. That one of the main causes of the disasters in which the Republic has been involved is the scandalous dilapidation of its funds, by some officials who have intervened in them; 2. That the only way to radically eradicate this disorder is to dictate strong and extraordinary measures, I have come to decree, …

Article 1. Any public official who is convicted in a summary trial of having embezzled or taken for himself public funds of ten pesos or above, shall be subject to capital punishment. Article 2. The Judges to whom, according to the law, this trial is incumbent, who in their case do not proceed according to this decree, shall be condemned to the same punishment. Article 3. Any individual may accuse public officials of the crime indicated in Article 1. Article 4. This decree shall be posted in all the offices of the Republic, and shall be noted in all the dispatches sent to the officials who in any way intervene in the handling of public funds. It shall be printed, published and circulated.

Commenting on this Decree in his book The Liberator and administrative probity (1984), Master Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa tells us with a strong Bolivarian spirit:

It is not enough to propagate Bolivar’s ideas, but to follow them and execute them. It requires civil death and public condemnation by a people of high civic spirit and impeccable moral conduct, which is the only inexorable judge, capable of burying dishonest officials in opprobrium.

The new institutionality is threatened daily by a high degree of entropy that we have not been able to reverse. It is necessary that corruption ceases to be perceived as normal in the political life of our country and for this it is decisive to fight it in all areas, to dismantle all its networks and to dismantle the conditions that favor it. We are obliged to definitively reverse the logic of meaning that makes corruption reproduce itself every day. And only with extreme severity in the punishment of white-collar crime will we be on the right path.

For great evils, great remedies. If corruption overflows the institutional mechanisms, it is imperative to strengthen them: Since the middle of the last century, all Venezuelan presidents have had Extraordinary Powers. According to numeral 8 of Article 236 of the Constitution, this Enabling Law that is being requested must grant the President of the Republic powers to legislate by decree, among other matters, in the area of corruption. Shame on those who oppose it.

We need a solid legality that allows us to act without delay to prevent the corrupt and corruptors from continuing to bleed Venezuela.

That is why there is an urgent need to approve an Enabling Law, which empowers the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to issue Decrees with the Rank, Value and Force of Law in matters against corruption and economic war unleashed against the Homeland, as follows:

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA Decrees

LAW AUTHORIZING THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC TO ISSUE DECREES WITH THE RANK, VALUE AND FORCE OF LAW IN THE MATTERS DELEGATED.

Article 1.

The President of the Republic is hereby authorized, through the Council of Ministers, to issue Decrees with the Rank, Value and Force of Law, in accordance with the guidelines, purposes and framework of the matters delegated in this Law, pursuant to the last paragraph of Article 203 and numeral 8 of Article 236 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and, consequently, the President of the Republic is hereby authorized to issue Decrees with the Rank, Value and Force of Law, in accordance with the guidelines, purposes and framework of the matters delegated in this Law:

1. In the field of anti-corruption:
   a. To dictate and/or reform norms and instruments aimed at strengthening the essential values of the exercise of the public function, such as solidarity, honesty, responsibility; vocation of work, love of neighbor, will to excel, struggle for emancipation and the process of national liberation, inspired by ethics, and socialist morality, conscious discipline, awareness of social duty and the fight against corruption and bureaucratism, all this, in order to guarantee and protect the interests of the State at its different levels of government.
   b. To enact and/or reform norms aimed at deepening and strengthening criminal, administrative, civil and disciplinary sanction mechanisms to avoid injury or improper management of public assets and prevent acts of corruption.
   c. To enact norms against money laundering.
   d. Establish strategic mechanisms to fight against those foreign powers that seek to destroy the homeland in the economic, political and media spheres.
   e. To combat illegal financing of political parties.
   f. To establish norms that prevent and sanction the flight of foreign currency.
   g. To issue provisions in defense of the national currency in order to counteract the attack on it.

2. In the area of economic defense:
   a. To enact and/or reform laws that consolidate the principles of social justice, efficiency, equity, productivity, solidarity, in order to ensure integral human development, a dignified and profitable existence for the Venezuelan people and thus achieve the greatest amount of happiness and good living.
   b. To dictate and/or reform the norms that establish the guidelines and strategies for the planning, articulation, organization and coordination of the procedures, especially in matters of production, importation, distribution and commercialization of food, raw materials and articles of prime necessity, which must be followed by the organs and entities of the State involved, guaranteeing food security and sovereignty.
   c. To dictate and/or reform the norms and/or measures aimed at planning, rationalizing and regulating the economy, as a means to propel the transformation of the economic system and defend economic stability in order to avoid the vulnerability of the economy; as well as to ensure monetary and price stability and the harmonious development of the national economy in order to generate sources of employment, high national added value, raise the standard of living of our people and strengthen the economic sovereignty of the country, thus guaranteeing the legal security, soundness, dynamism, sustainability, permanence and equity of economic growth, in order to achieve a fair distribution of wealth to meet the requirements and the most pressing needs of the Venezuelan people.
   d. Strengthen the fight against hoarding and speculation that affect the national economy.
   e. To regulate all matters concerning foreign currency requests in order to avoid the contrary use for the requested purpose.
   f. To guarantee the right of the People to have goods and services, safe, of quality and at fair prices.

Article 2.

In the case of a Decree with the Rank, Value and Force of Law, to which the President of the Republic confers an Organic character and which is not qualified as such by the Constitution of the Republic, it must be sent before its publication in the Official Gazette of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, to the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, so that it may pronounce on the constitutionality of such character, in accordance with the provisions of Article 203 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Article 3.

The authorization to the President of the Republic to issue Decrees with the Rank, Value and Force of Law in the matters delegated shall have a term of twelve (12) months for its exercise, counted as of the publication of this Law in the Official Gazette of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Article 4.

This Law shall become effective as of its publication in the Official Gazette of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Given, signed and sealed in the Federal Legislative Palace of the Rational Assembly, in Caracas, on the eighth day of October of the month of two thousand thirteen, 203rd year of the Independence and 154th year of the Federation and 14th year of the Bolivarian Revolution.