Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro said he requested the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) for “constitutional consideration” to strip the nationality of any Venezuelan citizen who “joins an imperialist foreign army to invade” the country.
Maduro accused opposition leader Leopoldo López of “asking the ‘gringo’ (American) army to get involved” in Venezuela, in a context marked by the US military deployment in the Caribbean Sea near the Venezuelan coast.
He declared that his request aims to get the Supreme Court to “authorize to proceed and take Venezuelan nationality, all documentation and everything that needs to be taken away, in accordance with the law and the Constitution”, from anyone who supports an invasion.
Maduro said he based his request on Article 130 of the Constitution, which states that Venezuelans “have the duty to honor and defend the homeland”, as well as to “guard and protect sovereignty, nationality, territorial integrity, self-determination and the interests of the nation”.
However, the Constitution, in its article 35, establishes that Venezuelans by birth “cannot be deprived of their nationality”, and only that granted by naturalization can be revoked, through a court ruling.
According to the vice-president of the Chavista regime Delcy Rodríguez, last Friday, Maduro presented a request to the TSJ to “withdraw the nationality” of López, accusing him of calling for a “military invasion”, in addition to “permanent promotion of the economic blockade” and a “call to massively murder Venezuelans in complicity with foreign governments and enemies”.
Furthermore, Rodríguez announced that the annulment of the opponent’s passport, exiled in Madrid since 2020, would be carried out “immediately”. In turn, López told EFE that he would be “the first citizen born in Venezuela” to whom this type of measure would be applied and believes that Maduro is “trapped”.
López’s party, Popular Will (VP), said the government’s intention “copies the repressive standards of the dictatorships of Cuba and Nicaragua.”
Maduro’s request was made after López declared that negotiations are no longer useful for achieving political change in his country and that he sees the formula in “pressure” from the US.
