Former president of Venezuela's National Electoral Council, Tibisay Lucena. File photo.
By Misión Verdad – Apr 12, 2023
In Venezuela, there are very few personalities who stand out for their respectable influence in different political circles, from any side. One of them is Tibisay Lucena. She has achieved this because she met all the conditions to defend electoral institutions and the Constitution.
This recognition has been due to a long career in important public positions, with crucial functions for Venezuelan political life. Originally from Barquisimeto, the capital of Lara, she graduated as a sociologist from the Central University of Venezuela. In the 1990s, she pursued an academic career and obtained a master’s degree on electoral processes, which would later lead her to be in charge of the main body on this matter.
Lucena’s technical knowledge and her capacity as an institutional manager contributed to the rigor of the National Electoral Council (CNE), despite the bitterness that existed, for many years, on the part of the anti-Chavista sectors, who accused her of partiality and fraud. However, Lucena always strove to carry out her task from any position and under any circumstances—personal or political.
Until 2016, the results issued by her in the elections that she chaired were accepted by all parties. Before becoming president of the highest electoral body in 2006, she had been substitute rector of the same entity. Her responsibilities multiplied when she, that same year, also had to take charge of the National Electoral Board. During 14 years at the helm of the CNE, there were 18 elections, many of them catalysts for the most decisive events in our recent national history, including presidential, regional, legislative, and constituent elections.
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Thus, Tibisay Lucena was a protagonist for a decade and a half in the greatest electoral milestones in Venezuela. She presided over the two re-elections of Hugo Chávez as president, the two presidential victories of Nicolás Maduro, a referendum and a Constitutional amendment, a constituent assembly, and many others that constituted conspicuous political events for the country.
In addition, as an argument that irritates her detractors, she announced the two main defeats in the history of Chavismo: the Constitutional referendum of 2007 and the parliamentary elections of 2015. At that time, the recognition of results was automatic and Lucena’s position was never disgraced, despite the attacks against her due to her institutional responsibilities.
Regarding her mandate, the modernization of the national electoral system stands out through its introduction of new technologies and verification methods that facilitated that the processing and disclosure of the results in electoral events.
The Committee of Electoral Experts of Latin America (CEELA), with which the CNE maintains a stable relationship, has repeatedly stated that Venezuela has been the only country in the region where audits are carried out on each of the steps, and it highlights the reliability of the mechanisms established by the CNE. Thus, the recognition of Tibisay Lucena’s management, which also complied with international standards and with state-of-the-art technology, in the statement that the Venezuelan electoral system is one of the most advanced in the world.
In 2018 Lucena said in an interview for the Spanish media outlet Público:
From the CNE, we have been building a system of guarantees over many years, almost two decades, that allows us to say that we have ‘zero error.’ Without false modesty, I can say it because it is demonstrable. Every step we have taken, every phase, and each component of the automated voting system is checked. We have a system that gives us great security. The audits allow us to have the peace of mind knowing that they always give ‘zero error.’
Despite having passed the acid tests to which all the electoral events in Lucena’s 14-year administration were subjected, part of a destabilizing opposition agenda since President Maduro won his first elections in 2013, the CNE has been accused of having politically favored Chavismo.
All the illegal moves of the extremist sectors to achieve the presidential removal, including the attempt to promote a presidential referendum in 2018 that did not have legitimate bases to support it, were repelled by the administration of the highest electoral authority, for which it won a great rejection by the anti-Chavista political elite and the United States.
Her unwavering commitment to defending the vote was decisive in achieving the political stability that the country needed after the election.
For this reason, she was “sanctioned” by the US Treasury Department on July 2017 under the rationale that she had “undermined democracy and human rights.” The pretext was the election of the National Constituent Assembly, a crucial fact that put an end to a violent scenario with insurrectionist components and color revolution-style coup leaders.
The US measure was joined by Canada, Colombia, Panama, Mexico, and the European Union. Referring to those who criticize the Venezuelan elections from Europe, she said in the aforementioned interview: “It strikes me that the countries that launch many of these alleged accusations, especially the European ones, are those countries in which the governments themselves organize the elections. There, yes, there is no independence. In Venezuela, an autonomous power does it.”
This great difference in electoral powers between different democratic models is what has led to international recognition of the work of the CNE, with Tibisay Lucena as its main manager.
When her stage on this front ended, she became the rector of the National Experimental University of the Arts (Unearte), with headquarters in Caracas, in 2020. President Maduro, judging that “with her extensive experience and pedagogical vocation, she will contribute to raising the quality of education for national development,” appointed her, in October 2021, as Minister of University Education.
In 2012 —she herself explained it on public television— she was diagnosed with cancer, a disease that she carried even in all the circumstances that we refer to in this brief profile. She did this with integrity, without complaints, and in an affable way. Those who knew her personally describe her as a pleasant person to deal with and speak to. It was no small thing, and she did it by being one of the most respected political personalities of recent times in Venezuela.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
Misión Verdad
Misión Verdad is a Venezuelan investigative journalism website with a socialist perspective in defense of the Bolivarian Revolution
