On this occasion we share the analysis of Access to Justice on the so-called Simón Bolívar Law, which poses serious risks to civic space and the right to free opinion and expression. Access to Justice has carried out a more detailed analysis of this law, available in Spanish.
It is not necessary for a person to do something that displeases the Government; it is enough for them to be included in the list of suspects established in the Organic Law Liberator Simón Bolívar Against the Imperialist Blockade and in Defense of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Simón Bolívar Law) to be subject to sanctions that can lead to the deprivation of their civil rights (“civil death”) and, as if that were not enough, of their property. Never before had the government dared to so flagrantly violate the principle of presumption of innocence.
The Simón Bolívar Law was published in the Official Gazette No. 6,859 of November 29, 2024. It had been approved by the National Assembly on the 28th of the same month and the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) validated its organic nature the following day. The new legislation was drafted in record time, due to the urgency to provide a response, more political than legal, to the Bill to Prohibit Operations and Leases with the Illegitimate Authoritarian Regime of Venezuela, approved on November 19 by the House of Representatives of the United States Congress. This bill, which has not yet been approved by the Senate of the United States Congress, would prohibit the Government of that country from hiring people who have commercial ties with the Government of Nicolás Maduro.
The purpose of the Simón Bolívar Law goes beyond punishing those who support sanctions imposed by governments or multilateral entities on people or organizations in a country (in this case Venezuela) for the alleged commission of human rights violations or acts of corruption. It also penalizes, as indicated in article 7:
“the failure to recognize the Public Powers legitimately established in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, their acts or their authorities, as well as the recognition of illegitimate subjects, groups or organizations that act pretending to exercise the powers of Venezuelan Public Powers, their authorities or entities.”
In practical terms, this expansion of the scope of the law would allow, for example, to sanction all those natural or legal persons who do not agree with the official results of the presidential elections of July 28.
In addition, the Simón Bolívar Law sanctions “the promotion, request or support of armed or forceful actions against the Venezuelan people that affect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, its institutions or authorities, as well as cyber attacks by States, powers, corporations or foreign persons.”
Although the true purpose of the law is set out in article 2.4: that the government has “quick and effective means to establish criminal liability.”
Life sentences
The Simón Bolívar Law has 22 articles and 20 types of sanctions, some of which are so serious that they are equivalent to life sentences.
The promotion, invocation, support or participation in international sanctions is punishable by imprisonment between 25 and 30 years and confiscatory fines that reach up to one million times the highest exchange rate among those published by the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV).
In addition, the new regulations include three types of disqualifications: ineligibility for elected office, political disqualification and disqualification to hold public office.
Disqualification from holding public office can be extended up to 60 years, which in reality is equivalent to a lifelong disqualification. The World Health Organization determined in 2021 (the year of the last assessment published on its website) that life expectancy in Venezuela was 72 years. Considering that the minimum age to be a public servant is 18, in the event of being disqualified for 60 years, the person could only return to public service after reaching the age of 78, which exceeds the indicated life expectancy limit.
Any sanction that exceeds the life expectancy limit in a country is, in practice, a life or perpetual sanction, which is prohibited in article 44 of the Constitution.
An imprecise and dangerous rhetoric
The references to international sanctions in the Simón Bolívar Law are imprecise and contradictory. It does not indicate what the “unilateral coercive measures” consist of, nor does it differentiate them from the “restrictive or punitive measures”, to which the regulations also refer. Nor is there a distinction between personal sanctions (which affect a single person) and sectoral sanctions (which affect part or the entire population).
The phrase “direct or indirect participation in the execution of unilateral coercive measures” included in Article 7 of the law is also imprecise, since it is not sufficiently clear what constitutes “indirect” participation. Such imprecision would put at risk all persons and organizations that report human rights violations or acts of corruption, especially if these reports could be used by a country or international entity that, without having any relationship with those who report, imposes sanctions in the terms established by law.
Similarly, the phrase “actions contrary to the State’s inalienable values and rights” could operate as a blank check, since the statement is so broad that it could include anything, at the complete discretion of the officials in charge of interpreting and applying the law. The vagueness in the definition of the actions established in the law as punishable acts violates the principle of legal typification of conduct considered as crimes and transgressions, established in article 49 of the Constitution: the sanctioned act or conduct must be clearly determined to avoid arbitrary interpretations.
Trial in absentia and civil conviction
Contrary to the provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights, the Constitution, the Organic Code of Criminal Procedure and the jurisprudence established and reiterated by the TSJ, the new regulations include trial in absentia. The political message could be summarized in a threat that does not cease with clandestinity or exile.
The law also refers to the extinction of domain, a relatively new figure in Venezuelan law, to increase the repressive nature of the Simón Bolívar Law. Although the extinction of domain has a legitimate purpose (the recovery of assets obtained by illegal acts), it has been distorted by the law that instituted it and can be used as a mechanism of political persecution.
Moving forward on the path opened in terms of property sanctions, article 20 of the Simón Bolívar Law indicates that whoever incurs in the acts and conducts sanctioned “will be civilly liable for the damages caused.” The new regulations allow a person to be condemned civilly for the damage that he may have caused, even if there is no previous criminal conviction.
Thus, it would be possible for a person sentenced to 30 years, in addition to having to pay a fine of up to one million euros, to be politically disqualified for 60 years and, if that were not enough, to lose his/her assets due to a civil conviction.
A list of suspects who may be condemned
Article 23 provides for the creation of a national register, in which natural persons, legal persons, national or foreign, will be included when “there is a well-founded reason to consider that they are involved in any of the actions contrary to the values and inalienable rights of the State.” This is a list of suspects that openly violates the principle of presumption of innocence enshrined in international treaties, pacts and conventions, as well as in the Constitution.
The most serious aspect of creating a list of suspects is that the mere inclusion in said register entails unilateral, immediate sanctions without the right to defense, which, in practice, nullify the affected person. This threat extends to organizations dedicated to the promotion and defense of human rights or humanitarian actions, which play a literally vital role in the context of the complex humanitarian emergency in Venezuela.
Articles 22 and 23 of the Simón Bolívar Law establish indeterminate “preventive measures” that entail administrative sanctions, which, in practice, can degenerate into the civil death of natural persons, to the extent that they are deprived of all civil rights.
Civil death implies the establishment of a figure unprecedented in Venezuelan law that has been surpassed in comparative law. In the case of legal entities, financial disqualification requires them to cease their activities.
Officialization of censorship
Article 21 of the Simón Bolívar Law establishes that mass media that disseminate advertising, propaganda or messages considered to promote international sanctions will be sanctioned with fines of one hundred thousand to one million times the highest exchange rate among those published by the BCV. In addition, in cases where the media outlet operates through a state concession, this will be revoked. In the case of digital media, the revocation or denial of permits to operate in the country is planned.
The simple dissemination of information about international sanctions can be classified as promotion of them, which will cause greater self-censorship on the part of the media and of citizens who express themselves or interact through personal social networks. This is the officialization of censorship in matters of international sanctions, even though it is a matter of undeniable public interest.
And how does it affect you, Venezuelan?
With the entry into force of the Simón Bolívar Law, all people are at risk of being arbitrarily sanctioned and without the right to defense. It is enough for the authority to consider that a person is suspicious for them to be included in a kind of blacklist. Based on simple suspicions, anyone can lose their civil and political rights, as well as their property.
The regulation, which came into force on November 29, 2024, is not limited to penalizing those who promote, invoke, support or benefit from the sanctions imposed by foreign governments and multilateral organizations, mostly on state actors for their alleged links to corruption and human rights violations. The law also penalizes those who do not recognize the organs of Public Power and this could include, for example, those who do not agree with the official results of the elections of July 28, 2024.
With this law, all citizens begin to live in a general state of suspicion.