Juan Andrés Mejía

Juan Andrés Mejía Szilard (b. 30 May 1986[1]) is a Venezuelan politician and engineer. He was elected deputy to the Venezuelan National Assembly on December 6, 2015 representing the second district of state of Miranda (formed by the Municipalities of Baruta, El Hatillo, Chacao, and the parish Leoncio Martínez in the municipality of Sucre) on behalf of the political organization Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD). He is founding member and National Political Coordinator[2] of the political party “Voluntad Popular”. He is President of the Special Commission “Plan País"[3] and presides over the Subcommittee of Credit and Public Debt to the National Assembly.[4] On May 8, 2019 began a persecution against him by the regime of Nicolás Maduro[5] when the Supreme Court of Justice (Spanish: Tribunal Supremo de Justicia) (TSJ) requested to disqualify his parliamentary immunity[6] to the National Constituent Assembly (Spanish: Asamblea Nacional Constituyente) (ANC)[7] with an imminent risk of arrest.[8]

Education

He studied industrial engineering at the Simón Bolívar University (USB), graduating in 2010. He completed a master's degree in public management at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA) in 2012 and the following year, he received a scholarship to start a master's degree in public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. After two years of studies, he returned to the country to take a place in Venezuelan politics.

University Leadership

Juan Andrés was elected president of the Student Body of the Simón Bolívar University (USB) on two occasions (between 2007 and 2008 and between 2008 and 2009).[9] He was one of the main leaders of the Student Movement[10] that emerged in the year 2007 after the closure of the television plant Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), due to the expiration of the concession for its open broadcast signal.[11]

In 2007, he participated actively in the electoral campaign for the "No" against the Constitutional Reform proposal promoted by President Hugo Chávez, with the objective of modify the Constitution of 1999. In the Constitutional Reform Referendum, the opposition conquered the victory with the result in favor of "No".[12]

Political career

In 2009, he founded with Leopoldo López and other political leaders the Voluntad Popular party, as a new political force that would fight to change the course of the country in a plural and democratic way. Mejía was elected in 2011 by more than 16 thousand people, as a member of the national leadership of this organization.

On August 9, 2013, he was registered as a candidate for Councilman of the Baruta municipality on behalf of the political organization Mesa de la Unidad Democrática, but decided to retire shortly after, because he was awarded a scholarship to study a master's degree abroad. Juan Andrés has been promoter of different movements and organizations dedicated to community work in poor neighborhoods. He also served as National Coordinator of “Redes Populares”, the grassroots movement, in Voluntad Popular.

National Assembly

In June 2015, Freddy Guevara and Juan Andrés Mejía were announced as opposition candidates for the Miranda state for the parliamentary elections scheduled in December 2015. On August 7, 2015, they formalized their candidacy for electoral district N ° 2, formed by the municipalities Chacao, Baruta, El Hatillo and parish Leoncio Martínez of Sucre municipality.

On December 6, 2015, Guevara and Mejía were elected deputies to the National Assembly with 84.87% (233,974 votes), becoming the most voted parliamentarians of the election, according to official data issued by the Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE).

Subcommittee to attend the university sector  

On January 14, 2016, the National Assembly approved the creation of a Special Commission to address abcrisis faced by Venezuelan universities.[13] Deputy Mejia was part of this commission, which presented on May 5 a final report to address this situation. It recommended the Amendment to the Organic Law of Education (LOE) and the Organic Law of Science, Technology and Innovation (LOCTI), as well as the creation of the new Law of Higher Education (Law of Universities), and the Law of Student Welfare.[14]

Subcommittee of Credit and Public Debt of the Permanent Commission of Finance and Economic Development of the National Assembly of Venezuela

Since January 2018, Mejía serves as President of the Subcommittee of Credit and Public Debt of the National Assembly. He has worked to gather information about the current state of the national public debt. In August 2018 the deputy alerted about the possible loss of the oil subsidiary Citgo due to mismanagement by Maduro of the country's public debts[15]

Special Commission “Plan País”

On January 29, 2019, the National Assembly approved the creation of the Special Commission  "Plan País", in charge of the designing and promoting a Nation's Rescue Plan, a road map submitted by the opposition in December 2018.[16] The commission was installed the day after its approval. Deputy Mejía presides this commission, alongside Deputy Jose Guerra who occupies the vice-presidency while deputies Mariela Magallanes, Elías Matta and Luis Silva are also members.[17]

“Plan País”, accompanied by academics, experts and politicians, is a set of policies that the leadership will follow in a new government, arising from the construction of consensus among all sectors of the country. Among the priorities of this plan are: obtaining humanitarian aid and guaranteeing supplies, stabilizing the economy, reactivating the oil industry, diversifying the national economy and restoring access to public services.[18]

Political persecution

In May 2019, a new wave of persecution against deputies of the National Assembly (AN) began with the issuance of five sentences of the Full Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (Spanish: Sala Plena del Tribunal Supremo de Justicia) (TSJ). On May 8, 2019 a request made by the Attorney General of the Republic to the National Constituent Assembly (Spanish: Fiscal General de la República a la Asamblea Nacional Constituyente) (ANC) is published on the TSJ website, where it decides to compromise the responsibility of the deputies Juan Andrés Mejía, Sergio Vergara and Freddy Superlano of the Venezuelan parliament in the flagrant commission of crimes such as treason, conspiracy and civil rebellion, among others.[19] On May 14, 2019 the ANC in ordinary session approved to disqualify the parliamentary immunity of five deputies of the National Parliament, including in the previous list deputies Carlos Paparoni and Miguel Pizarro in an illegal and unconstitutional way.[20]

The actions taken by the Full Chamber (Spanish: Fiscal General) of the TSJ violate the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela when requesting the lifting of parliamentary immunity to the ANC and not to the AN, who is the only competent authority in the matter, and also modifies the criterion of flagrancy to grant the acquiescence of their immunity without complying with the pre-merit pre-requisite requirement (articles 187.20 and 200 of the Constitution).[21]

Deputy Juan Andrés Mejía is taking measures ever since, in order to protect his safety and avoid being a "hostage of the dictatorship".[22]

References
  1. "Juan Andrés Mejía @JuanAndresMejia". Twitter. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  2. "AN alerta que Venezuela está al borde del colapso financiero". Informe21.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  3. "Asamblea Nacional esgrime nuevamente el Plan País como pieza de la transición". TalCual (in Spanish). 30 January 2019. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  4. "Subcomisión de Crédito y Deuda Pública archivos". Revista Zeta (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  5. De 2019, 13 De Mayo. "Persecución en Venezuela: suben a 859 los presos políticos del régimen de Nicolás Maduro". Infobae (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  6. Venezuela 24, Centro de Noticias. "¡Tres más! TSJ solicitará allanar inmunidad parlamentaria de Juan Andrés Mejía, Sergio Vergara y Freddy Superlano – Centro de Noticias Venezuela 24" (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  7. "Asamblea Nacional Constituyente de Venezuela de 2017", Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre (in Spanish), 3 June 2019, retrieved 3 June 2019
  8. "Desde la clandestinidad, Juan Andrés Mejía no quiere ser "rehén de la dictadura"". El Estímulo. 11 May 2019. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  9. "CEIP USB". Centro de Estudiantes de Ingenieria de Produccion USB. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  10. Valenzuela Rubio, Manuel (15 April 2013). "El compromiso de la Geografía con la realidad. XXXII congreso de la unión geográfica internacional Colonia, 26 a 30 de agosto de 2012". Boletín de la Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles (61). doi:10.21138/bage.1549. ISSN 2605-3322.
  11. "Lista de beneficiarios de aod establecida por el cad, por grupos de ingresos", La ayuda para el comercio en síntesis, OECD, pp. 487–488, 1 January 2017, doi:10.1787/ayuda_sintesis-2015-81-es, ISBN 9789264266926
  12. "Momento de Divulgación", El proceso de investigación, Editorial Universidad del Norte, 8 June 2013, pp. 204–216, doi:10.2307/j.ctvdf0m1v.13, ISBN 9789587412949
  13. "Atender a las personas en situación de exclusión: Opciones de política nacionales". Informe Sobre Desarrollo Humano 2016. Informe sobre Desarrollo Humano. 1 June 2017. doi:10.18356/5d852f40-es. ISBN 9789210600385.
  14. "Informe de la comisión a la asamblea general". 6 November 1957. doi:10.18356/c279d128-es. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  15. "Parlamento venezolano alerta que el país está al borde del colapso financiero". NTN24 | www.ntn24.com (in Spanish). 11 August 2018. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  16. "Juan Andrés Mejía: Comisión Plan País de la AN se instaló para trabajar por el rescate de Venezuela (30 - 1 - 2019)". El blog de Valenciahoy (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  17. "Asamblea Nacional esgrime nuevamente el Plan País como pieza de la transición". TalCual (in Spanish). 30 January 2019. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  18. "Plan País: las medidas para el día después". Prodavinci (in Spanish). 1 February 2019. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  19. "TSJ enjuiciará a Juan Andrés Mejía, Sergio Vergara y Freddy Superlano". Noticiero Digital (in Spanish). 8 May 2019. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  20. "Constituyente despoja de inmunidad a otros cinco diputados por rebelión militar – Grau García Hernández & Mónaco". www.ghm.com.ve (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  21. "Persecución y encarcelamiento de diputados: ¿crimen de lesa humanidad? – Acceso a la Justicia" (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  22. EC, Redacción (11 May 2019). "Venezuela: Diputado en la clandestinidad dice que no quiere ser "rehén de la dictadura"". El Comercio (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 June 2019.

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