Published at: 22/12/2024 12:00 PM

Last Sunday, elections were held to elect justices of the peace in Venezuela. According to the Center for Justice Studies of the Americas, a justice of the peace is “the authority responsible for avoiding and judging those behaviors and actions that alter peace in a community, in accordance with the competencies and processes established in the Law, are the first link of justice or the first visible face of the judiciary that carries out the work of pacification and mediation within the areas where they are elected.”

To create the legal bases that strengthen the figure of justices of the peace, on November 18, the Organic Law of Justice and Community Peace was published in the Official Gazette #6854 , in order to ensure and consolidate good coexistence and peace in communities. This law, as expressed in its first article: “its purpose is to establish the rules of organization and operation of community peace justice, as an area of participation of popular power and special jurisdiction of the justice system for the presentation of harmony in family relations, neighborhood and community coexistence, as well as to resolve issues derived from the actions of instances and organizations of popular power”.

To achieve this objective, the law in its article 2 outlines the following: “Communal Peace Justice encompasses the field of justice that promotes arbitration, conciliation and mediation as means of resolving conflicts at the community level, in order to promote supportive coexistence, peace and cash. Access to responsible, equitable and expeditious justice mechanisms, without undue delay, formalism or useless repositions”.

Competencies of a Justice of the Peace and characteristics of Justices of the Peace

Justices of the peace must sanction those behaviors that alter good coexistence between citizens of an area. They are responsible for processing and issuing judgments in these conflicts; however, they do not have to have extensive judicial knowledge, since they tend to deal with minor controversies and conflicts, that is, minor or minor litigation such as insults, threats or coercion in the local area.

But, in any case, the justices of the peace try to ensure that the conflicts they must judge are resolved by reaching an agreement between both parties. They strive for reconciliation between the parties concerned, based on the community's own customs.

According to the Organic Law of Justice and Community Peace, people who are elected as justices of the peace must meet the following characteristics, such as:

To be conciliatory: as an alternative means of conflict resolution, in which the parties involved state their points of view to achieve the resolution of the conflict. In conciliation, the Communal Justice or Justice of the Peace channels and promotes dialogue between the parties.

Serving as a mediator: guides the process of reconciling and facilitating dialogue between the parties to the conflict, in order to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution. In mediation, the Judge or the Communal Justice of the Peace must help identify the points of controversy and explain the different scenarios for a consensual agreement.

Arbitrating conflicts with equity: it is the means of resolving conflicts, in which the Judge or the Justice of the Community Peace decides the dispute, based on the proportionality and real condition of each of the parties, which leads to the decision, in a fair, constructive and relevant manner, the specific matter submitted to their arbitration, based on the constitutional principle of social justice and the laws related to the matter.

It is important to keep in mind that justices of the peace are empowered by law to rule out preventive measures against those citizens who jeopardize the integrity of their neighbors or that harm coexistence within the community.

Also, article 20 of the Law on Training and Training Programs for Communal Judges or Justices of the Peace, in its chapter 5, states that: “It is the responsibility of the Judiciary, through the National Coordination of Communal Justice of the Peace of the Supreme Court of Justice, in coordination with the National School of the Judiciary, for the initial and ongoing training of Judges or Judges of Communal Peace, as well as of the auxiliary staff and the spokeswomen or spokespersons of the Communal Peace Justice Committees and Councils”.

This Act adds in the same article that: “The Communal Judges or Justices of the Peace, before taking office, must carry out the initial training and training program in Community Justice of the Peace and in the field of Human Rights, the competence of judges and justices of the peace to hear a particular matter, shall begin with the request made to them by the parties involved in the conflict or controversy, by common agreement or individually, orally or in writing”.

Countries where the figure of Justices of the Peace exists

Although some of these countries criticize this initiative in Venezuela, we have some in which they include justices of the peace within their justice system:

United States: Justice of the peace falls under state jurisdiction, because it is under this jurisdiction that the rules and requirements for the election and occupation of the office of justice of the peace within territories, counties, municipalities or cities are regulated and established. Within the regulations, the same state Constitution is located, as is the case with the Constitution of the State of Texas, in addition to other state codifications that give life and functionality to this figure so important to the local justice system, which manages to have an impact not only on family, civil or traffic justice, but also on criminal justice itself.

Argentina: The Justice of the Peace is a judicial institution in the Province of Buenos Aires in Argentina. It works through justices of the peace that are established in all parties of the Province that are not the head of the judicial department. These are responsible for dealing with provincial, minor and neighborhood faults.

Spain: Courts of the Peace are unipersonal judicial bodies with local jurisdiction, generally in municipalities or regions where there is no Court of First Instance. In these places, the justice of the peace is responsible for exercising the corresponding judicial functions. The Courts of the Peace are regulated by Article 100 of the Organic Law of the Judiciary (LOPJ). Judges are proposed by the respective City Council and appointed by the Governing Chamber of the High Court of Justice, generally for a term of 4 years.

Peru: Justice of the peace is an integral organ of the Judiciary whose operators resolve conflicts and controversies preferably through conciliation, and also through judicial decisions, in accordance with the community's own criteria of justice and within the framework of the Political Constitution of Peru.

Colombia: Justice of the peace seeks, according to law 497 of 1999, to provide comprehensive and peaceful treatment of community and private conflicts. Equity. The decisions handed down by justices of the peace must be in fairness, in accordance with the community's own criteria of justice.

Guatemala: The Code of Criminal Procedure in its article #552 explains the “Community Courts of the Peace and the Supreme Court of Justice shall appoint as justices of the peace in criminal matters three persons of recognized honorability and roots who can communicate in the predominant language of the region and in Spanish. For the appointment of community judges, the Supreme Court of Justice will consult with the different community authorities.

Opposition against Peace

As is customary, the Venezuelan opposition stands out for being against any initiative that represents strengthening popular power, peace, harmony and national democracy and, in the face of this new electoral process, its spokespersons declared their aversion to it in their media. This is how we saw headlines and statements like the ones below:

“The election of communal justices of the peace that the ruler Nicolás Maduro proposed for this December 15 took place this Sunday with the general feeling among citizens that it was a partisan process linked to the dynamic of control exercised by the ruling party through the so-called communal circuits and communes.” El Pitazo newspaper, December 15, 2024.

“Several members of the opposition Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) coalition rejected the election held this Sunday of 30,000 justices of the peace, promoted by Chavism in order to guarantee harmony in the so-called communal circuits established in the territory. Former deputy Juan Pablo Guanipa said that this is a new farce of the government of President Nicolás Maduro, with which committees are appointed to defend the so-called revolution to control and persecute those who do not agree with this regime. For his part, former governor Andrés Velásquez said that Maduro and the ruling United Socialist Party (PSUV), in a desperate attempt to turn the page on July 28, threw up a bunch of supposed elections for justices of the peace, which he considers to be a caricature of partisan control.” EFE News Agency, December 15, 2024.

Justices of the Peace for the People's Power

Communal justices of the peace, elected by their own communities, act as moral leaders and mediators, using simple language that encourages communication and citizen participation. With the implementation of Communal Justice of Peace, the Venezuelan Government seeks to consolidate a model that not only addresses the challenges of access to justice, but also contributes to the construction of a new society based on equity and popular participation. President Maduro has emphasized that this initiative not only strengthens national sovereignty by empowering communities, but also positions Venezuela as a reference for humanistic modernity in the international arena.

In this regard, the first vice-president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, stated that “the election of communal justices of the peace marks a milestone in the history of Venezuela, not only as an act of participatory democracy, but also as a decisive step towards building a more just and inclusive state. This model, conceived by and for communities, promises to transform the way in which justice is understood and practiced in the country, offering a path to social reconciliation and the strengthening of the community fabric.”

Once again, the Venezuelan people express themselves and express themselves in peace, in the full exercise of their democracy to increasingly deepen popular power as the sole protagonist of the Bolivarian Revolution.

AMELYREN BASABE/Mazo News Team