In addition to consolidating an authoritarian and nondemocratic state in the Constitution, the rejected 2007 constitutional reform sanctioned by the National Assembly, also sought to consolidate a centralized state in the Constitution in complete substitution of the federation.

PROPOSED CHANGES IN THE STATE FORM: FROM CENTRALIZED FEDERATION TO CENTRALIZED STATE

From the time the Republic of Venezuela was established in 1811, and from when it was subsequently reconstituted in 1830, the Venezuelan state, in formal terms, has always been that of a federation – a state whose public powers are distributed between autonomous political-territorial entities on three levels: national (republic), state (individual states), and municipal (municipalities). The respective autonomies of each level have been constitutionally guaranteed.

Despite its vicissitudes and a tendency toward centralization, the Venezuelan federation has implied a vertical distribution of the public powers. Although it is not expressly eliminated in formal terms, the 2007 reform was to result in the disappearance of the federation. This was to perpetrate fraud on the Constitution.

The Destruction of the Federation

Taking Away Territoriality from the Federation

Although the 2007 reform did not expressly propose eliminating the federal form, its content was designed to eliminate the federation. With respect to the states and municipalities (Article 16 of the Constitution of 1999), on which the concept of federalism is built, the 2007 reform sought to eliminate the constitutional guarantee of municipal autonomy and political-administrative decentralization, thus laying the groundwork to remove any jurisdictional competencies and power from those territorial entities.