Top justice terms "sovereign" Venezuela's potential pullout of the IACHR

It is the decision of a "democratic, autonomous and sovereign" country. In this way, magistrate Luisa Estella Morales, the president of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ), labeled the intention voiced by Venezuela s President Hugo Chávez to take Venezuela out of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

Morales has questioned for years both the Commission and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and lobbies for the creation of new regional organizations for the protection of constitutional rights and liberties. "Human rights assessment ought to be based on a new vision instead of a vision useful only for repression and condemnation."

Self-appointment

Last May 9, the TSJ president made known that she and the TSJ first vice-president, magistrate Omar Mora Díaz, would represent the judiciary at the freshened-up State Council. The agency is intended to advise the government on the way of leaving the IACHR.

Neither the decision nor the way of disclosing it was warmly welcomed at the TSJ. "This is a collegiate body and the election of a TSJ representative for the State Council should have been decided in a plenary session. Who did tell the president that the representation falls on her just because of her current position?" a justice complained.