Chávez and the Constitution, a legacy where the People continue to build their laws

Published at: 28/07/2026 10:31 AM

“I swear before God, I swear before the Fatherland, I swear before my People that on this dying Constitution I will promote the democratic transformations necessary for the new Republic to have a Magna Carta suitable for the new times. I swear ,” said Commander Hugo Chávez during his swearing in as president on February 2, 1999 at the former National Congress.

From his electoral campaign, Chávez showed his interest in establishing a Magna Carta that would dignify and protect the Venezuelan people, who suffered 40 years under governments of the Fourth Republic that knelt in the service of the North American empire.

The lawyer and professor of the Bolivarian Universality of Venezuela, Alex Díaz Padrón, explains that the regulations of legislation have an ideological meaning that has historically been used to dominate and that with the arrival of Chávez he broke with these actions.

“In the Bolivarian Revolution, legislative construction has been an instrument that energizes change and President Chávez was clear about this from the beginning. He quoted Jean-Jacques Rousseau several times a phrase that was wonderful to him: 'Between the powerful and the weak, freedom oppresses and only the law frees', and he himself added that it was the just law that freed (...) President Chávez, as a good Bolivarian, also assumed several maxims of the Liberator in this matter: 'Equality must be the law of laws',” said Díaz Padrón.

Padrón assured that Chávez also took the legacy of Simón Rodríguez, who maintained that he invented laws according to idiosyncrasies and the national project.

With all the inspiration he had sown, Commander Chávez promoted the Constitutional Process, which, as explained by Padrón, had certain obstacles on the part of the conservative sector, but which, with the support of the People, could be approved.

“The birth has occurred, we have given birth, a new Republic has been born, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has been born. However, I must say, as we all know, that the birth unfortunately, brothers, has been painful. God's designs, perhaps, surely, because as we have said on many occasions, God is in charge of all this, we are following his path and we are following his designs (...) Bolivarian Venezuela was born today, the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela was born today. May God keep the new Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela forever and may God keep the brave Venezuelan people forever, eternally,” emphasized the leader after the results on December 15, 1999.

For Díaz Padrón, Chávez gave legislative construction a different dynamic.

“This Fifth Republic has developed in two confluent dynamics: a first dynamic that we would call the ordinary legislation that is made by the National Assembly as a branch of the Public Power; and a second that is done through a law that enables the president to whom specific matters are constitutionally delegated for a certain period of time. This happened in 2000, 2007 and 2010 with President Chávez,” he explained.

Two laws enacted by Chávez disrupted the interests of business elites

In November 2001, Commander Chávez enacted 49 laws framed in the Enabling Law as part of his government plan, which was always to guarantee inclusion and social justice, but there were two that disrupted the interests of business elites: The Land and Agrarian Development Act and the Organic Law on Hydrocarbons.

In this sense, the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution stated that the Land Law consists of “establishing the foundations of comprehensive and sustainable rural development (...) for the human development and economic growth of the agrarian sector.”

Chávez, faced with the refusal of the right-wing agrarian sector, replied: “They took over the wealth of the land and used to have their own dialogue, for their interests, but they never heard or consulted the peasants of Venezuela.”

In the same way, in the face of the Organic Hydrocarbons Act, hatred was unleashed in Fedechambers and by those who operated the then state oil company Petrleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).

“This law holds the key to changing Venezuelan oil history, so that oil actually, now yes, contributes as a lever for the country's comprehensive, economic, industrial and social development,” said Chávez.

The coup against the Commander in April 2002, with the collaboration of national and international media supported by Washington, violated the Constitution, but the will of the People prevailed in union with the Bolivarian National Armed Forces and they managed to rescue Chávez and the Republic.

Chávez promotes the most humanistic Constitution in the region

Attorney Víctor Díaz Varela Fourth Republic Caracazo, a social outbreak where the people took to the streets because of the injustices applied during the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez.

“In legislative matters, what they did was plagiarize the laws of other countries, making the great mistake of forgetting that every law must reflect the feelings of the people of that society where the law must be applied,” said Díaz Varela.

Díaz Varela said that Commander Chávez and the 1999 Constitution opened an important space for him for Human Rights.

“The differences are abysmal with the Constitution of 61, among the changes seen in that of 99 is that we went from three powers to five powers, including the Electoral and Citizens Power. A special chapter on human rights was opened,” he said.

Commander Chávez, like Bolívar, was a man ahead of his time. El Arañero de Sabaneta

“This makes a big difference with others at the level of Latin America, such as the case of Chile, which still has a constitution that was born in a regime of dictatorship and where all the governments that have passed respond to that regime (...) To the shame of Michelle Bachelet, who governed with that Magna Carta and who now holds a position as representative of human rights in the United Nations,” said Díaz Valera.

It is worth noting that in the region they do not have an Organic Labor Law like in Venezuela and that is thanks to Chávez, and that today most neighboring countries are fighting for a worthy demand.

On April 30, 2012, he signed the law into law. “We have a law for history, the product of a long process of struggle,” said Commander Chávez, who, with his pain from his illness before leaving for Cuba, wanted to give that gift to the workers.

Chávez's Legacy of Legacy

Professor and lawyer Alex Díaz Padrón believes that later Commander Chávez left with the Bolivarian Constitution a tool as a legal weapon in the face of attacks by the Venezuelan right, an action that was demonstrated in President Nicolás Maduro's call for a new Constituent Assembly framed in the Magna Carta before the guarimbas of 2017.

“The first legislative achievement was so important that the Bolivarian Constitution provided for a specific chapter on the National Constituent Assembly. Let us remember that the one of 61 did not constitute a mechanism of A Constituent Assembly, so the Commander had to fight a legal and political battle to pave the way for the year of 1999, this was resolved in the already Bolivarian Constitution. And that's why President Maduro was able to face the situation of violence by formulating a new National Constituent Assembly,” Díaz Padrón explained.

The people took to the streets again in July of that same year, to approve a new Constituent Assembly, an action that brought peace to the country.

The current National Assembly is the return of Bolívar, Chávez and the legislator people, says Díaz Padrón, where the deputies who promote Chávez's legacy so far have worked on 35 laws, including the Law on Communal Cities, Plan Chamba Juvenil, and others, where street parliamentarism prevails to bring legal instruments to the people from home to home.

“Without a doubt, the legacy of Chávez Legisador is preserved and developed in this new National Assembly,” he concluded.

Mazo News Team