Comuneros having a meeting at the Comuna El Maizal in 2019. Photo: Cira Pascual Marquina/Venezuelanaysis/file photo.
After extensive debates, the Venezuelan National Assembly approved last Wednesday, November 13, the Organic Law of Special Jurisdiction for Communal Peace Justice. This is a legal instrument that seeks to establish a new form of justice that is not punitive, but rather deeply rooted in solidarity, neighborhood, and family principles that serve as the basis of the Communal State promoted by the Bolivarian Revolution.
In this regard, President Nicolás Maduro has called for the election, by direct and secret vote, of the Communal Peace Justices of the 5000 communal circuits of Venezuela, marking a new milestone in participatory and protagonist democracy. Elections that will be held with a high symbolic value, scheduled for next December 15, 25 years after the constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela was approved.
The responsibilities of the communal Peace Justices, according to Article 8 of the recently reformed Organic Law of Special Jurisdiction for Communal Peace Justice, published in the Venezuelan Official Gazette #6854 on November 14, 2024, are:
• To hear conflicts or disputes that arise between individuals or legal entities in their local territorial area, and which have been entrusted to them for decision-making.
• To hear conflicts or disputes arising from the rental or horizontal property relationship, except those assigned to ordinary and special courts or administrative authorities.
• To be aware of conflicts or disputes between members of the community arising from the application of ordinances relating to coexistence, community charters; coexistence regulations of the Community Councils or instruments of a similar nature issued by neighborhood organizations.
• To hear conflicts or disputes between members of the community related to the operation, performance and administration of neighborhood organizations.
• To act as a receiving body for complaints in cases of gender violence, in accordance with the terms established in the special law that regulates the matter, and may dictate protection and security measures in favor of the victim or the family.
• To assist with the monitoring and enforcement of measures relating to family coexistence and the obligation to provide support issued by the Courts for the Protection of Children and Adolescents.
• To ensure respect for the rights of children, adolescents, older adults, people with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations
• To be aware of the action arising from the ownership, possession and protection of domestic, community or endangered animals.
• To be aware of conflicts or controversies that arise between members of socio-productive organizations in the communities.
• To hear all disputes related to the actions of the Communal Councils, Communes and People’s Power organizations.
• To promote educational campaigns on civic values, peace, solidarity, human rights and conflict resolution in the communities within its territorial scope.
• To promote the adoption of ordinances, community charters, regulations for coexistence of the Community Councils or instruments of a similar nature originated by neighborhood organizations, in order to promote harmony, peace and solidarity in community relations.
• To request the support of municipal, state or national police, when required for the effective performance of their duties.
Far-right journalists and influencers in Venezuela and abroad have been claiming for weeks that the reform is another step taken by the Maduro administration to control the Judiciary, when in reality the reform reduces communal justices’ responsibilities if compared with the 2012 original law.
The new version of the law removes the civil registry and the supporting control role over food and services from the duties of the communal justices. In the 2012 law, the justices had the authority to register marriages and divorces, however, that has been removed in the reformed version of the Organic Law
(RedRadioVE) by Fransay Riera with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/DZ
