Coordinator Julio Borges | Political position Centre-right | |
 | ||
Leader Henrique Capriles Radonski Deputy Leaders Richard Mardo,
Carlos Ocariz Founded 2000; 17 years ago (2000) Headquarters Edif. Pofili, Urb. Los Palos Grandes, Maracaibo | ||
The Justice First (Spanish: Primero Justicia) is a centre-right political party in Venezuela. Founded in 1992 as a civil association, it became a political party in 2000.
Contents
History
Justice First was created in 1992 as a civil association by a group of university students under the leadership of Alirio Abreu Burelli. The group was concerned about what they saw as a deterioration of judicial power in the country, and sought a reform of Venezuela's legal system. Abreu Burelli was magistrate of the federal Supreme Court of Justice and Vice President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS).
The association entered the political arena during the 1999 Constituent Assembly of Venezuela, in which they presented a draft for the country's new constitution. Justice First became a political party in 2000, initially as a regional party, and registered as a national party with the National Electoral Council of Venezuela on 1 March 2002.
In the July 2000 legislative elections, five members of Justice First were elected as deputies to the National Assembly for a five-year term: Carlos Eduardo Ocariz Guerra, Gerardo Alberto Blyde Pérez, Julio Borges, Ramón José Medina Simancas and Liliana de los Ángeles Hernández Soto. Justice First participated in the last minute opposition boycott of the 2005 elections, so they had no representatives in the Assembly from 2005 to 2010. They contested the 2006 presidential elections with former congressman Julio Borges, but he dropped out of the race in support of Manuel Rosales, then Mayor of Maracaibo, and former governor of Zulia State.
Henrique Capriles Radonski was elected governor of Miranda in 2008. The party had 6 deputies elected at the 2010 parliamentary elections: Tomas Guanipa in Zulia, Juan Carlos Caldera and Julio Borges in Miranda, Dinorah Figuera in the capital district, Richard Mardo in Aragua, and Richard Arteaga in Anzoátegui.
Ideology
During its party Congress, called "Resteados con la Justicia Social," held on 13 October 2007, Justice First declared itself to be a "humanist-progressive" party, with political action focused on human being and aligned with integral humanism.
On March 2009, the party's national coordinator Julio Borges said, "Venezuela lives under state capitalism, not socialism". The party's economic position is so-called "properties democratization," similar to a social market economy. In the 2012 presidential election, Henrique Capriles described himself as humanist and progressive.
The party's values are liberty, progress, equality, solidarity, justice, subsidiarity, and participation.