In Venezuela, citizens are electing 15,000 peace judges for the first time on December 15th. Our correspondent, Gladys Quesada, with the details. teleSUR
Category
đź—ž
NewsTranscript
00:00Hi, we go live now to Venezuela in the context of the elections being held in Venezuela to
00:11choose justices of peace in communal districts, and at this moment we make contact with our
00:17correspondent in Caracas, Gladys Quesada.
00:20Hi Gladys, how is this electoral process going at this hour?
00:26Well, hello Ale, it's a pleasure to have this contact with you and the opportunity
00:36to tell to our audience what is going on here in Venezuela.
00:39So yes, as you properly were saying, this is the moment of the election of the peace
00:45justices here in Venezuela, and I'm standing in Cadia Lamar, which is one of the many localities
00:54of the La Guaira state, and this is not precisely the capital of the country, but it's really
01:01really close by to the city of Caracas.
01:04Here in Urimare, that's the name of this community, they are choosing 20 candidates for peace
01:10justices, so they are choosing 3 out of the 20, and they have 15 communes council here
01:17in this location, so they are choosing different representatives in the case of any conflict,
01:24any disjunctive, any discrepancies among them.
01:29And also I have to say the closing hours were programmed for 4pm here in Caracas, but actually
01:37because of the amount of people that are coming here to cast their vote and to participate
01:42and take part in this election of the peace justices, they are extending the closing hours.
01:47So as you can see, the lines are still filled up, and the people are still coming, so they
01:53are going to extend the closing time.
01:55But also I want to say something, because this is paramount to comprehend, and we have
02:00to stress this information.
02:02In all the cases, this is a big big celebration of the popular consultations, the popular
02:08will, to ask people what they want for the future, and to give the people the tools,
02:14you know, the ways, the means to enhance the democracy and to enhance their own governance
02:19and their own ways to build their path, to carve their path for the future and the political
02:25administration of their own territories.
02:28This is a first step in enhancing the popular will, the popular state, the communal state
02:33as was referred and defined by the President Nicolás Maduro Moros, and as is, you know,
02:40preserved and defined in the Constitution of 1999.
02:44And also, I have to say, by the way, this is the 25th anniversary of the Constitution
02:50of Venezuela, that was enacted in 1999 after a referendum, a popular consultation that
02:58then President, late Commander Hugo Rafael Chávez FrĂas did and called for the people
03:04and they went to the voting centers also and approved this Constitution.
03:09So this is a celebration, this is an anniversary, but also is a first step for other moments
03:15in the political future of Venezuela.
03:18It's a paramount event, as you mentioned, so can you go deep into what key roles these
03:25representatives will play in each criminal district?
03:28Why is it important for the country and especially for the Venezuelan families to have them nearby?
03:34Yeah, Ale, well, what is going on is that the penal code and many of the ways of the
03:48judiciary here in Venezuela have roots, deep roots in the Fourth Republic in the ways of
03:53tyranny before and prior to the Bolivarian Revolution, besides or aside the transformations
04:00that the revolution has done.
04:01So giving the people the will or the opportunity to choose their justices is going to enhance
04:08the self-governance because the ways, the political discrimination ways of the Republic
04:15prior to the Bolivarian Revolution did something with the penal system, okay?
04:19They took the margins, you know, the people, the outcast people by the political system
04:25and put them on purpose massively in the penal system and in the prison system so they could
04:31guarantee not only a controlled population, but also a way to criminalize the black people,
04:38the poor people, the indigenous people, you know, those that were on the margins, on the
04:43fringes of the system.
04:45Now with this system, with this new capacity that the government has given to the people,
04:50the justices will be able to attend, to confront, to solve the minimal issues, you know, like
04:57familiar conflicts, like discussions, like land and territory discrepancies.
05:04So they will be able to not send those cases to the top authorities and in that way they
05:10will solve those.
05:12So I have to take into account something.
05:15The justices are coming from the communities, so they know the people, they know who they
05:19are, you know, defending or who they are giving a charge because they know the people, they
05:27know the territory and they know the customary ways of each one of the communities to deal
05:32with this.
05:33So it is not in prison, it is not to just cancel people out, it is not just to marginalize
05:40groups of people.
05:41It is a way to enhance true justice, equitable justice and also self-governance.
05:46For all the information we will for sure keep in contact for more details on this paramount
05:53event.
05:56From Caracas we were talking to our correspondent Gladys Casada in the framework of the elections
06:03being held in Venezuela to choose justices of peace in Camilo districts.
06:07And with this report of our colleague we invite you to stay tuned with Telesur for
06:10more information on this key event taking place in Venezuela.