Eli Lake, Columnist

The Exiled Court Protecting Venezuelan Democracy

Judges meeting via teleconference bolster the constitution and the legitimacy of Juan Guaido.

January 28, 2019 at 1:00 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Legitimate protest.
Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images North America

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For the last year and a half, a second Venezuelan Supreme Court has presided over the country’s laws through the miracle of cloud computing. Its 33 jurists live in the U.S., Panama, Colombia and Chile. Every 15 days, they hold court via video conference.

Known as the Supreme Tribunal of Justice for Venezuela in exile, it has referred its country’s military leaders to the International Criminal Court at the Hague. It has also sentenced Nicolas Maduro, a man still considered Venezuela’s president by Russia, Cuba and China, to 18 years in prison. Until this week, few paid much attention to this court without a country. Its Twitter handle is not even verified.