Learn about the Anti-Blockade Law in Venezuela
The Anti-Blockade Law establishes various articles regarding confidentiality and limited disclosure of decisions made by the Public Power
The Anti-Blockade Law was published last Friday, October 16, in Venezuela — in an Extraordinary Official Gazette №6,583, dated October 12. That, in addition to the Constituent Decree that creates the International Center for Productive Investment (CIIP) will seek to confront the unilateral coercive measures imposed by the United States regime against Venezuelans.
The document (Constituent Decree) establishes the powers of CIIP. Among them, “setting standards for the evaluation of performance and results applicable to companies and other forms of organization that manage or administer State assets”. This will be the result of the direct application of the Constitutional Anti-Blockade Law for National Development and the Guarantee of Human Rights.
In addition, CIIP must “promote, nationally and internationally, projects aimed at increasing the flow of foreign exchange into the economy”. Also, increase the profitability of assets and mitigate the effects of unilateral coercive measures and other restrictive or punitive measures.
Likewise, it must develop “mechanisms of protection in favor of legal entities and assets” (…) against the measures imposed against the country and Venezuelans.
The entities protected by the norm cited in the previous paragraph are third parties, including other States, investors and natural or legal persons that are related to the Venezuelan State or with entities where the Bolivarian Republic has patrimonial interests. This section also includes small and medium-sized companies.
Compensation for damage caused by the blockade
The Anti-Blockade Law establishes in specific cases that “the National Executive shall proceed not to apply (…) those norms of legal or sublegal rank whose application is impossible or counterproductive as a consequence of the effects produced by a certain unilateral coercive measure or other restrictive or punitive measure” .
When does the previous judicial opinion apply? When it is necessary to overcome the obstacles or compensate the damages that the measures generate to the administrative activity. Also, when this contributes to the protection of the patrimony of the Venezuelan State against any act of dispossession or immobilization. The same applies when it is to mitigate the effects of the measures that affect the flow of foreign currency.
Meanwhile, Article 22 states that to recover workers’ savings, the Executive may create and implement large-scale financial mechanisms. Its objective would be to progressively restore the value of social benefits, accumulated benefits and savings obtained by the workers affected by the attacks or other threats.
The Anti-Blockade instrument also addresses the priority attention to social plans, programs and projects. Article 23 stipulates how social plans, programs or projects or any other activity aimed at the implementation of national public policies can be addressed. The sectors included in this section are food, health, social security, provision of basic services and other essential economic goods. In these cases, the Executive may create or authorize new mechanisms or sources of financing in any of its forms.
Private sector and State companies
Article 25 states that the Executive may organize and reorganize decentralized entities for business purposes, inside and outside the country. It will do so in an effort to modernize and adapt them to the mechanisms used in international practice. According to the norm, this will allow the improvement of its operation, commercial and financial relations or the investment of the Venezuelan State. “The organization or reorganization must primarily guarantee the safeguarding of the heritage of the Republic and its entities”, it adds.
Then, Article 29 indicates that the Government may authorize and implement measures that stimulate and favor the participation, management and partial or comprehensive operation of the private sector in the development of the economy. Such measures will take into account the particularities and specific needs for the support of small and medium enterprises.
“Assets that are under administration or management of the Venezuelan State as a result of some restrictive administrative or judicial measure of any of the elements of the property, which are required for their urgent incorporation into a productive process, may be the object of alliances with entities from the private sector”, states the text.
That last guideline includes small and medium enterprises, as well as organized Popular Power. The purpose of this idea is to maximize its use in the production of goods and services to satisfy the fundamental needs of the Venezuelan people. “Likewise, it seeks to improve the efficiency of public sector companies”, states Article 30.
Article 31 indicates: “When it is necessary to protect fundamental productive sectors of the country and the actors that participate in them, the National Executive is authorized to lift restrictions on commercialization for certain categories of subjects, in strategic activities of the national economy”.
“Confidentiality and limited disclosure”
The Anti-Blockade Law also establishes various articles regarding confidentiality and limited disclosure of decisions made by the Public Power. This is to “protect and ensure the effectiveness of the measures taken against coercive actions” by other countries.
In its Article 37, the rule addresses the content of the article 325 of the Constitution. For this reason, it creates a transitory regime regarding the classification of documents with confidential and secret content aimed at protecting and ensuring the effectiveness of the decisions made by the Public Power. This is done “within the framework of the protection of the State” against any type of coercive, restrictive or punitive measure.
“The highest authorities of the organs and entities of the Public Administration (…) for reasons of national interest and convenience, may grant the nature of reserved, confidential or limited disclosure to any file, document, information, fact or circumstance, which in fulfillment of their functions are known to them, in application of this Constitutional Law “, exposes Article 39.
Article 41 “prohibits access to documentation that has been classified as confidential or reserved”. Neither simple nor certified copies of it may be issued. The violation of the transitory regime referred to in this Anti-Blockade Law “will be subject to the regime of responsibilities established in the applicable legal system”.
Furthermore, in accordance with the provisions of article 325 of the Constitution, “the procedures, acts and records carried out on the occasion of the implementation of any of the measures established are declared secret and reserved” in the second chapter of the Law, which involve the non-application of norms of legal or sublegal status, up to 90 days after the cessation of the unilateral coercive measures and other restrictive or punitive measures that have led to the situation”, stipulates Article 42.
