The National Assembly of Venezuela has officially launched the Judicial Nominations Evaluation Committee, a mixed body responsible for reviewing and elevating proposals for the appointment of the next magistrates of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ).
After completing a preliminary selection phase, the commission has been definitively formed by 21 members: eleven deputies and ten representatives of civil society. This team will have the task of preparing the list of qualified candidates to fill the existing vacancies in the highest judicial body of the South American country, generated by retirements, resignations, and the increase in positions anticipated in the most recent reform of the Organic Law of the TSJ.
At the swearing-in ceremony, the president of the Legislative Power, Jorge Rodríguez, called on the committee members to act swiftly and to avoid any type of partisan bias, in order to ensure the selection of suitable profiles with guarantees of impartiality.
The reconfiguration of the TSJ leadership occurs in parallel to the latest institutional advances agreed in Caracas between the delegations of the ruling party and the opposition during the most recent round of negotiations. This same week, Rodríguez himself and the representative of the National Assembly of 2015, Dinorah Figuera, concluded the third cycle of conversations with key agreements to review the system of political disqualifications and deepen the democratization of the country.
On this same day, the acting president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, received in the Miraflores Palace the chief negotiators of the Government and the opposition to assess the progress of the dialogue, a process that has the explicit support of the United States after confirming "tangible results" in the course towards the democratization and stabilization of the country.