1 CAN THE BOLIVARIAN EXPERIMENT IMPLEMENT TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE IN VENEZUELA? RODRIGO ACUÑA AND ESTELA VALVERDE* Transitional Justice in Latin America emerged in relation to accountability for human rights abuses at the period of transition to democracy from dictatorship. Venezuela was often considered an exception since it generally avoided the prolonged military dictatorships which gripped the region during much of the Cold War. Under closer scrutiny though, Venezuela has had a history of violent politics but with little accountability. The Caracazo stands out as the worst case of repression, which became a politically symbolic event for President Hugo Chávez to recognise victims and press for accountability. This paper looks at the advances and contradictions Venezuela has done in Transitional Justice during the Bolivarian experiment (1999- ). Transitional Justice is relevant to the Bolivarian experiment because justice emerges as part of the state institutional reform, establishing a new rule of law and combatting corruption in the police and judiciary. TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE IN VENEZUELA: AN INTRODUCTION With the death of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Frías in early March 2013, and the recent violence initiated by student protests in February 2014, Venezuela has again received a high level of international attention. Repeatedly overshadowed by the brutal dictatorships in Latin America during the Cold War, and often praised as a ‘stable’ or ‘exceptional democracy’, academia began to turn its attention towards one of the world’s largest oil states in late 1998, with the election of Chávez. 1 Standing on a broad populist program, Chávez, who, as a Lieutenant Colonel attempted to carry out a military coup in February 1992, won the 1998 elections on the basis of a board anti-business sentiment. 2 * Rodrigo Acuña, BA (Hons), Dip Ed (UNSW), PhD (Macq.), Associate Lecturer in Spanish and Latin American Studies, Department of International Studies, Macquarie University. Estela Valverde, BA (Hons and PhD) (UNSW), Associate Professor and Head of Spanish and Latin American Studies, Department of International Studies, Macquarie University. 1 For a critique of the ‘exceptional democracy’ perspective see: Ellner, Steve, Rethinking Venezuelan Politics: Class, Conflict, and the Chávez Phenomenon (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2008), pp. 1-4; 2 Gates, Leslie C., Electing Chávez: the Business of Anti-neoliberal Politics in Venezuela, (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010), pp. 14-58.