The mandate of the Ombudsman expired in August 2024. The Citizen Power Nomination Evaluation Committee (hereinafter “the Committee”) is the constitutional body in charge of organizing a public process that must result in the appointment of the new Ombudsman, as well as the Attorney General and the Comptroller General. However, the Ombudsman, Alfredo Ruiz, was elected for a second 7-year term, in open violation of the applicable constitutional norms, thereby confirming all the vices that led to the downgrading of the institution to category “B”. Furthermore, his appointment occurs in the context of a political-electoral crisis, which represents a clear commitment by the government to consolidate silence and impunity in the face of massive human rights violations.
The Committee stated that between October 10 and 31, it received the applications, published the list of candidates and the objections, discarded objections, carried out the evaluations of the candidates, conducted interviews with the 128 candidates and carried out the relevant evaluation request, in an express process described by the president of the National Assembly (hereinafter “AN”) as “methodical and neat.” On Thursday, October 31, the Committee presented the final list with the 48 citizens, from which, that same day, the AN chose Alfredo Ruiz for the second time, whom it immediately swore in. This occurred despite the fact that both the Venezuelan Constitution in its article 280, and the Organic Law of the Ombudsman’s Office in its articles 3 and 17, set out that the head of the Ombudsman’s Office can be elected for a “single period” of 7 years.
It should be remembered that Alfredo Ruiz had been de facto appointed by the illegitimate national constituent assembly in August 2017, a body whose only constitutional function is to draft a new Constitution, which never happened, but instead was dedicated to de facto replacing the National Assembly – which was then dominated by the opposition – by passing unconstitutional laws such as “the law against hatred”, one of the main instruments of political repression, and appointing new political operators of the government, as was the case of Alfredo Ruiz and Tarek William Saab.
A similar situation took place with the Attorney General of the Republic, Tarek William Saab. At the end of an evaluation process of 35 candidates, on October 31 the AN also appointed the aforementioned official for a second term of 7 years, the same one who has led the investigations and accusations against more than a hundred opponents in recent years, many of them imprisoned and tortured, as well as social leaders, journalists and defenders. Similarly to Alfredo Ruiz, Tarek William Saab came to the State with the help of the ruling party and was de facto appointed in 2017 by the illegitimate national constituent assembly. The Attorney General is the main piece of the justice system that keeps crimes against humanity in impunity and that dedicates its entire institution to hiding them with inaction and propaganda. Furthermore, since July 28, 2024, Prosecutor Saab has been the main actor in the persecution against opponents, electoral witnesses, journalists, community leaders, children and human rights defenders.
The other figure that makes up the Citizen Power in Venezuela is the Comptroller General. The AN appointed Gustavo Vizcaíno, former Director of the Administrative Service of Identification, Migration and Immigration (Saime), as the new Comptroller General of the Republic, for a period of 7 years. It was under Vizcaíno’s mandate that the passport business was unleashed, including the recent wave of passport cancellations against several people who are political opponents or perceived as such, and the intentional obstruction of basic identity documentation to the detriment of millions of Venezuelans, inside and outside the national territory, as a form of punishment.
It is clear that the composition of this moral structure, through three self-confessed representatives of the government, aims to strengthen the concentration of power and sustain the crimes that have plunged the country into a complex humanitarian emergency. No positive change can emerge from this but rather to advance the wager of impunity and silence. The international community must condemn the appointment of this repressive institution, call for accountability, and provide protection to all Venezuelans who are still struggling to assert their right to democracy.