President Maduro, alongside his wife and National Assembly Deputy Cilia Flores and National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, honors Tibisay Lucena. Photo: Presidential Press.
This Wednesday, in a funeral chapel, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez honored Tibisay Lucena, expressing the pain felt by the public at her departure. Rodríguez recognized Lucena as a unique woman, an exceptional republican, a Venezuelan patriot, and a first class soldier of the homeland.
Cabinet members, along with other authorities and representatives of the diplomatic corps, honored and accompanied relatives and close friends of the former president of the National Electoral Council (CNE) in Caracas.
After participating in the first honor guard together with Interior Minister Remigio Ceballos, Electricity Minister Nestor Reverol, Planning Minister Ricardo Menéndez, and Science and Technology Minister Gabriela Jiménez, the vice president expressed her heartfelt words of appreciation for Tibisay Lucena and her career.
Tibisay Lucena defeated fascism
Tibisay Lucena “knew how to confront, with great dignity, foreign powers that came against our country in moments of great anguish,” said Rodríguez. “She knew how to defeat fascism and its most terrible expressions of hatred and intolerance with her smile, with her parsimony.”
“Tibisay very firmly led this Republic to a port of peace and calm,” Rodriguez added. In this regard, she pointed out that Lucena was a deep democrat who gave birth to a new electoral system “that ended and buried the terrible Punto Fijista tradition,” referring to the tradition in place in Venezuela before the era of Chavismo, in which votes were altered to favor the traditional parties at the time, Democratic Action (AD) and COPEI.
Rodríguez also noted that Tibisay Lucena was an exemplary minister until the last days of her life, highlighting her dedication and her constant new ideas. “She was always devoted to this country, to this people, until the last minute,” Rodríguez said.
Likewise, the vice president commended the transcendental example that Tibisay Lucena left for others: “I can tell you today, sister of life, sister of this country, that you are rising high, that you never faltered, that you are going to be an example for all of us of what loyalty, firmness, commitment, and love for this country and homeland means, for Venezuela, for our people.”
President Maduro at the funeral service
Later in the afternoon, President Maduro commented on the legacy of Tibisay Lucena for the construction of the new political structure that was built in the country after the approval of the new Constitution in 1999.
“Tibisay was the brilliant head in the construction of the new electoral Power,” President Maduro said, “the fifth constitutional power established in the Constitution. If one person stood for all the constitutional functioning, the construction of an impeccable system of absolute guarantees, of transparency of the electoral system, that person has a first and last name, and it is Tibisay Lucena.”
In this sense, President Maduro stated that Lucena was always present in the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) in 1999, a facet unknown to the public.
“Tibisay had come from studying in the United States,” President Maduro said. “She was a sociologist, and we met her as very active, as a direct adviser to the drafting of the constitutional text, to everything related to the political, democratic structure that marvelously articulates the 1999 constitution.”
“Tibisay was the promoter and co-editor for the creation of the five powers, the political structure, and the electoral power,” President Maduro added.
Subsequently, recalled the Venezuelan president, she was appointed as rector of the CNE, due to her “great knowledge, for being co-editor of the Constitution and electoral laws.”
During the activity, President Maduro delivered the Order Libertadores de Venezuela, in its first class, post-mortem, to the relatives of the former CNE rector.
Tibisay Lucena prevailed over hate campaigns
During the ceremony President Maduro highlighted Lucena’s courage in the face of the campaign of intolerance and hate that was promoted by the Venezuelan right against her.
“The concentrated fire of lies, manipulation, and hatred of the fascists took Tibisay as the center of all their aggression and attacks, believing that they were attacking her from all flanks, in all the media, on social media platforms…” President Maduro said.
In this regard, he stated that Lucena must become an example of struggle for all young people who want to face the hate campaign promoted against the country.
“It is an example, how she faced all the fascist aggression campaigns against her,” the president said. “Her strength is truly admirable and motivating.”
Similarly, he recalled that, thanks to the laws that were promoted during Lucena’s administration of the CNE, 29 electoral processes were carried out in the country with transparent and reliable outcomes.
Regarding the campaign promoted by the opposition, Maduro noted that the same groups that attacked Lucena and the CNE are now seeking support from the Electoral Power to carry out the primaries for the new electoral process.
(Últimas Noticias and Últimas Noticias) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
