The Acción Democrática faction led by Bernabé Gutiérrez presented this Tuesday a proposal for constitutional reform to the Presidential Commission for the Restructuring and Reengineering of the National Government, an instance established by Delcy Rodríguez in an attempt to redesign the Venezuelan state apparatus.
The proposal includes several points of institutional weight: the elimination of indefinite reelection, the return to a bicameral Congress, the creation of a budgetary guarantee for salaries and wages, and a significant reduction of ministries and vice-ministries.
Gutiérrez, a deputy of the National Assembly and national secretary general of the Acción Democrática recognized by the regime's institutions, stated that Venezuela must move towards a political scheme with greater alternation. In that sense, he proposed limiting the presidency to two terms of five years each.
“Two presidential terms, each of five years, is enough time for anyone who commits to the Venezuelans and is elected president to fulfill what was promised,” he affirmed during the presentation.
The proposal also includes the restoration of the bicameral Legislative Power, with a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate. This is a significant change for the Venezuelan institutional design, after years of power concentration under chavismo and systematic weakening of republican checks and balances.
Another of the points presented by Gutiérrez directly addresses the economic drama faced by millions of Venezuelans: salaries. The initiative proposes that the Constitution include a fixed percentage of the budget allocated for salary increases, with the aim of ensuring that incomes can cover the cost of the basic basket.
“No more playing with the anxiety and needs of Venezuelans, who are waiting for May 1st to be announced a bonus or an insufficient salary,” questioned the Acción Democrática leader.
The project comes after the opening driven during the Trump administration in Delcy's government.
The Acción Democrática led by Gutiérrez is the structure recognized after years of judicial intervention over the historic opposition party, a maneuver that anti-chavista sectors denounced as part of the regime's strategy to manufacture a functional opposition.
Therefore, although the proposal includes points that in any democracy would be reasonable —limiting mandates, reducing bureaucracy, and recovering institutional balances—, the focus of public opinion is on who controls the process and with what real guarantees it would be applied. Nevertheless, the recognition of the democratic need constitutes an unprecedented advance.
