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Court’s view that the CORJS’s failure to rule on these complaints in its resolution, as
well as its failure to assess the suitability of the judges other than in relation to the
commission of the inexcusable error turns the complaints irrelevant for the purpose
of determining the reasons that led said organ to remove the judges.
*
*
*
93.
Lastly, the representative argued that the victims “requested the submission
of recorded information, as evidence, in order to determine whether the order of
amparo issued by the First Court […] was indeed constitutive in nature, as argued by
the [IGC].” According to the representative, the CORJS “never ruled on whether such
evidence should be admitted” and “never took any steps towards obtaining such
evidence.” The State noted that “the same evidentiary goal could have been
achieved by requesting a certified copy of the legal tradition of the property.”
94.
Based on the above, the Court finds that the facts that (1) the CORJS did not
rule on the request for evidence submitted by Messrs. Apitz and Rocha, and (2) such
evidence was available to the victims, who could have obtained it directly at the
relevant state office for subsequent submission to the CORJS, are not in dispute
between the parties. Accordingly, the point at issue is whether the CORJS was
required to rule on the victims’ request for evidence. It is the Court’s view that such
was the only evidentiary request made by the victims and it was intended to provide
clarification on a decisive aspect of the case, i.e. that the amparo by the First Court
in fact did not produce constitutive effects and that, therefore, there was no
inexcusable judicial error. Considering the above, in the Court’s opinion, at the very
least the CORJS should have ruled by allowing or denying the request for evidence,
or even by ordering that such evidence be obtained and submitted by the victims
themselves. Because of its complete silence on the matter, the Court considers the
State to have violated the “due guarantees” ordered in Article 8(1) of the American
Convention, in relation to Article 1(1) thereof, to the detriment of Messrs. Apitz and
Rocha.
6.
Independence
95.
The matter of judicial independence that is at issue in the instant case
involves two interrelated components. First, the case falls within an alleged context
of lack of independence of the Venezuelan Judiciary. Second, there is the alleged lack
of independence of the CORJS.
6.1.
Independence of the Judiciary, in general
96.
The representative argued that “the removal of the judges of the First Court
[…] falls within a broader political context” in which the Government allegedly carried
out a “refinement or ‘ideological cleansing’ of the courts of Venezuela, aimed at
getting rid of any judges who […] were not aligned with the political project devised
by the President of Venezuela,” thereby “interfer[ing] with the independence […] of
the Judiciary in general.”
investigation into the inexcusable judicial error. As regards the second accusation, the file of the case
before this Court contains no background documents.