CARACAS, Aug 12 (Reuters) – The highest Venezuelan court intervened the historic Communist Party of Venezuela and appointed a new ad hoc board of directors by admitting a constitutional protection, months after harsh criticism from the party against the economic policies of President Nicolás Maduro.
The Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) has issued similar rulings against opposition parties such as Acción Democrática, which emerged in the 1940s as a center-left group, as well as Primero Justicia and Voluntad Popular, in 2020. The highest court later suspended the intervention measure. of the board of directors of Primero Justicia.
The Constitutional Chamber “appoints an ad hoc board of directors of the organization so that (…) it organizes the internal democratic processes that guarantee the rights to political participation of the associates,” read sentence 1160 released on Friday by the night on the website of the highest court.
Henry Parra was appointed as president of the board and Sixto Rodríguez as general secretary. Five other key positions in the organization were also named.
The communist party criticized the decision and said that the people who promoted the appeal do not belong to the party.
“The Government of Nicolás Maduro has carried out the assault against the Communist Party of Venezuela through an arbitrary judicial sentence that endorses the imposition of a directive made up of mercenaries at the service of the leadership led by the PSUV (government party),” denounced the political bureau of the PCV through a publication on its official accounts on social networks.
The founders of the small but historic PCV were among those who fought against the dictatorship of the 1950s and later joined the democratic process.
The organization backed Hugo Chávez’s rise to power in 1999, and quietly split from the ruling coalition in 2020 after a dispute over Maduro’s economic policies. In recent months, he has increased his public criticism, demanding better wages and pensions, among others.
The PCV has criticized the government’s economic plan in recent years, which includes de facto dollarization, after relaxing controls on the economy, and the cut in public spending that has affected salaries, particularly in the public sector, where workers earn a minimum of about 4.12 dollars a month, according to the official rate, in a country that still has the highest inflation in Latin America. (Reporting by Deisy Buitrago. Editing by Vivian Sequera)
Source: Ambito
