Remote Rule, Tighter Reins | Gobierno remoto, riendas más cortas

By Erbol:

REFORM OF FUNCTIONS

Decree enables Paz to govern through technological means when traveling abroad and cuts back Lara’s margin of action

The leaders are now politically distanced. Photo: VEP.

The Government published Supreme Decree 5515, through which it modifies the operating structure of the Executive Branch and provides that the President may govern through technological means in the event of traveling abroad, while reducing the Vice President’s margin of action.

The Decree comes as Rodrigo Paz has international commitments such as the Davos forum in Switzerland, but is politically distanced from Vice President Edmand Lara, who has declared himself an opponent. Within the ruling party, concern arose that the second-in-command might take advantage of the head of state’s trips to revoke his measures.

The new regulation establishes that the President must exercise his powers through technological communication means when he is temporarily outside national territory.

If the President is unable to exercise his powers through technological means, the Decree clarifies that he may expressly and precisely communicate the actions that the Vice President will carry out while serving temporarily as President.

Lara, with a shorter leash

The regulation also narrows the Vice President’s functions. In a previous Decree, it was established that the second-in-command could “plan, manage, support, and execute actions.” However, under the new Decree he may only “manage and coadyuvate actions within the framework of the direction of the Government’s general policy.”

Moreover, when the Vice President remains as Acting President due to the titular President’s travel, the Decree specifies that he must abide by the express communication of actions dictated by the head of state, “unless there is an express expansion.”

Likewise, the regulation establishes that the actions carried out by the Vice President in the exercise of the Presidency “must be executed in coordination with the incumbent or interim Minister of the Presidency, in congruence with the corresponding State and Government policies.”

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