2024-04-04 22:55:00
(CNN Spanish) — The National Assembly of Venezuela received on Tuesday the draft “Law once morest fascism, neofascism and similar expressions” promoted by the Government of Nicolás Maduro. The document was approved in the first discussion on Tuesday and is expected to go to the second discussion in the coming weeks, the Legislative Branch reported in a statement.
The proposed law – made up of 30 articles – contemplates various sanctions for those who carry out acts that the authorities consider fascist, neo-fascist or similar. These sanctions might be criminal (years in prison), administrative (fines) or involve the dissolution of organizations.
What does the Government argue?
In the explanatory statement, the Government points out that this law is necessary because in the last 25 years there have been, according to them, social sectors that recurrently “turn to violence as a form of political action, openly contradicting the constitutional postulates that, among others things, protect the democratic exercise of the popular will.”
“This bill seeks to establish the means and mechanisms to preserve peaceful coexistence, public tranquility, the democratic exercise of the popular will, the recognition of diversity, tolerance and mutual respect, in the face of expressions of fascist order, neofascist or similar nature that may arise in the territory of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” the document says.
How do you define fascism?
The bill defines fascism (article 4) as the ideological position that, based on an alleged moral, ethnic, social or national superiority, “assumes violence as a method of political action,” denigrates democracy and its institutions and promotes the suppression of rights of some sectors to favor others.
“Racism, chauvinism, classism, moral conservatism, neoliberalism, misogyny and all types of phobia once morest human beings and their right to non-discrimination and diversity are common features of this position,” he points out.
The project seems to redefine what fascism is, at least in Venezuela. In academic and political circles in many countries, fascism is recognized as the “political ideology and mass movement that dominated many parts of central, southern and eastern Europe between 1919 and 1945 and that also had followers in Western Europe, the United States, South Africa, Japan, Latin America and the Middle East”, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Although fascist parties and movements differ significantly from each other throughout history, they have “many characteristics in common, including extreme militaristic nationalism, disdain for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, belief in natural social hierarchy and the rule of the elites, and the desire to create a Volksgemeinschaft (German: “popular community”), in which individual interests would be subordinated to the good of the nation,” the Encyclopedia adds.
Historically, Benito Mussolini, Europe’s first fascist leader, and Adolf Hitler, leader of Nazi Germany, are used as references for that ideology.
But the Venezuelan project seems to refer to something else.
What type of sanctions does the project include?
The bill proposes prohibiting meetings or demonstrations that advocate what the government considers fascism, neo-fascism or similar expressions (article 12), as well as establishing that civil courts of first instance have the power to dissolve social organizations that spread these ideologies (article 14).
The bill indicates that it will be the responsibility of the Public Ministry to order and direct the criminal investigation of these crimes.
Within the political sphere, it provides that the National Electoral Council (CNE) can cancel the registration of parties that promote “fascist acts” (article 15), and that the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice can order the dissolution of these parties. at the proposal of the Public Ministry (article 16).
The instrument under discussion considers “fascist acts” to be those in which a person “requests, invokes, promotes or executes violent actions as a means or means for the exercise of political rights.”
Those who resort to violence for political purposes will be punished with a sentence of 8 to 12 years in prison and political disqualification (article 22). For anyone who advocates “fascism”, a penalty of 6 to 10 years in prison and political disqualification is proposed (article 23).
For anyone who finances “fascist” activities, fines are foreseen in bolivars that are equivalent to between 50,000 and 100,000 times the highest exchange rate once morest the dollar published by the Central Bank of Venezuela (article 27).
Likewise, the document includes sanctions for the media. In this case, the revocation of the concession is contemplated for television channels or radio stations that broadcast “fascist” messages, in the opinion of the authorities (article 28).
What context surrounds this law?
The law promoted by the Government is being discussed in the National Assembly – with a pro-government majority – when there are less than four months left for the presidential elections on July 28, in which Maduro will seek a third term, and while tensions grow between the Executive and the opposition.
A large part of the opposition, led by María Corina Machado, accuses the Government of preventing both her candidacy and that of the academic Corina Yoris. Machado is disqualified for alleged financial irregularities, accusations that she rejects, and Yoris, whom Machado had designated as her replacement, might not register with the CNE.
During the presentation of the bill in the National Assembly, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said that there are organizations that seek to “assault political power once more.” In reference to the opposition forces, she added: “Today they present themselves as sheep to be what they have never been, they have never been democrats.”
A questioned idea
The bill “has open conceptual definitions and arbitrary interpretation” and might be used as an “instrument of censorship and extreme limitation on freedom of expression and information,” the Peace Laboratory Organization in Venezuela warned this Thursday, which dedicated to researching issues of democracy, human rights and non-violence.
The approval of the measure “would mean progress in the construction of a totalitarian government model in the country, further aggravating the guarantees for the enjoyment of the population’s human rights and distancing us from the possibility of paving the way for a transition to democracy,” he warns in his analysis.
For her part, the director of the Americas Division of the Humans Rights Watch organization, Juanita Goebertus, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the project “will allow opponents to be criminalized and candidates to be disqualified.”
“The regime is not willing to hold free elections,” Goebertus added. “Sadly, they are moving closer to Nicaragua and moving away from a negotiated transition to democracy.”
The winner of the Venezuelan opposition primaries María Corina Machado published a letter to the international community on Wednesday in of July.
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