Inter-American Human Rights Court rules that the Venezuelan government violated Capriles’ political rights

( Spanish) –– The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IAC Court) resolved this Monday that the State of Venezuela is responsible for the violation of political rights, freedom of expression and the right to equality to the detriment of Henrique Capriles during the 2013 elections.

The ruling, released by the Court, which belongs to the Organization of American States (OAS) system, orders the Venezuelan State to implement measures that materialize the minimum guarantees to preserve electoral integrity, transparency in electoral processes, access to the public media, and the independence and impartiality of the National Electoral Council (CNE) and the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ).

asked the Maduro government and the TSJ for a comment in response to the final ruling of the Inter-American Court without having yet received a response.

Given the ruling, Capriles said that the sentence was obtained with reparation measures and urged respect for the results of the election on July 28.

“11 years later (justice, in addition to making the truth prevail, must be expeditious) we obtained a ruling in relation to the lawsuit that we filed for the 2013 presidential election before the @IDH Court,” Capriles published on your social network account.

In the presidential elections of April 14, 2013, Henrique Capriles, of the Democratic Unity Party (MUD), and Nicolás Maduro, of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), competed.

On March 5 of that year, President Hugo Chávez had died, after which Maduro, who was executive vice president, and later “President in Charge of the Republic”, registered as a PSUV candidate, with prior approval from the TSJ, which qualified him to run. run as a presidential candidate without having to leave office to compete in the elections, despite the fact that, according to the interpretation of article 229 of the Constitution, a sitting vice president cannot run as president, the Court highlighted. HDI.

The hemispheric court also highlighted that during the campaign “the use of public media, statements and mobilizations of State officials, undue pressure, and use of public resources for the coverage and promotion of Nicolás Maduro was proven. Mr. Capriles’ campaign team presented 348 complaints to the CNE in which they alleged alleged electoral irregularities, without these being resolved,” the opinion stated.

After the elections, in which the CNE declared Maduro the winner by 50.61%, against 49.12% for Capriles, the opposition candidate presented a contentious electoral appeal before the Electoral Chamber of the TSJ, to declare the nullity of the election, to which the Constitutional Chamber of the TSJ not only rejected the appeal but also imposed a fine of 10,700 bolivars at that time and sent the letter of Capriles to the Public Ministry for a possible criminal case against him, highlighted the Inter-American Court.

According to the ruling of the Inter-American Court, Capriles’ legal team presented – after the 2013 elections – the challenge of the result before the Venezuelan authorities with the argument that there was partiality on the part of the National Electoral Commission.

In its ruling, the Court concluded that “the actions and omissions of the State, taken as a whole, and in a context of institutional deterioration, were of such magnitude that they affected the integrity of the electoral process and political rights, freedom of expression and equality before the law of Mr. Capriles” and added that “the actions of the State constituted an abandonment of the fundamental principles of the Rule of Law, insofar as it ignored the rules provided by the domestic law itself to limit power and make the democratic game possible, and allowed the use of the apparatus of the State to favor Nicolás Maduro” before, during and after the elections.

The ruling of the Inter-American Court would have no other effect than information on Venezuelan authorities, since in September 2013 the Maduro Government decided to abandon the Inter-American human rights system in retaliation to the Inter-American Commission for accepting the review of Capriles’ claim. after the elections that year. Venezuela completely withdrew from the OAS in 2019.