Elvis Eduardo Hidrobo Amoroso (born 4 August 1963) is a Venezuelan politician and lawyer who currently serves as the President of the National Electoral Council since 24 August 2023. He previously served as Comptroller General of the Republic and held the presidency of the Republican Moral Council (Spanish: ''Consejo Moral Republicano''), also known as the ''Moral Power'' (Spanish: ''Poder Moral''). In August 2017, he was elected as first and second vice president of the

2017 Constituent National Assembly The Constituent National Assembly (; ANC) was a constituent assembly elected in 2017 to draft a new constitution for Venezuela. Its members were elected in a special 2017 election that was condemned by over forty mostly Latin American and West ...

and served until October 2017. He also served as a deputy to the National Assembly for the

United Socialist Party of Venezuela The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (, PSUV, ) is a Socialism, socialist political party which has been the ruling party of Venezuela since 2007. It was formed from a merger of some of the political and social forces that support the Bolivar ...

(PSUV).

Political career

In the parliamentary elections of 1993 he was elected Deputy to the Congress of the Republic of the Radical Cause by circuit 2 of the Aragua state within the VIII Legislature . He was re-elected in 1998 with the support of the

Fifth Republic Movement The Fifth Republic Movement (Spanish: ''Movimiento V uintaRepública'', MVR) was a Socialism, socialist political party in Venezuela. It was founded in July 1997, following a national congress of the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200, to ...

(MVR) and

Fatherland for All Fatherland for All (''Patria Para Todos'', PPT) is a leftist political party in Venezuela. It was founded on September 27, 1997 by members of The Radical Cause party led by Pablo Medina, Aristóbulo Istúriz and Alí Rodríguez Araque. In 19 ...

(PPT). He served as secretary of the Commission Legislative National of 2000, where Alejandro Andrade served as undersecretary. He was a member of the parliamentary group of 2002 Group Boston and deputy of the National Assembly since 2006 of the

(PSUV), where he served as chairman of the Permanent Commission for Internal Policy of the Assembly in 2012 and as first vice president from 2015 to 2016. In 2015, he ran as magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) after losing re-election in the parliamentary elections of 6 December. However, the Venezuelan constitution and the Organic Law of the Supreme Court of Justice establish that to be a magistrate the lawyer must be at least 15 years old in the exercise of the law, a requirement that Amoroso did not meet because he graduated as a lawyer at the Bicentennial University of Aragua in 2006. He was elected as first vice president of the 2017 National Constituent Assembly from 18 August to 27 October of the same year when he is appointed second vice president. He is appointed by the ANC as Comptroller General of the Republic of Venezuela on 23 October 2018.

Personal life

His son, Elvis Junior Amoroso is the Permanent Secretary (in charge) of the Council of Ministers of Venezuela.

Controversies

On Juan Guaidó

Following

Juan Guaidó Juan Gerardo Antonio Guaidó Márquez (born 28 July 1983) is a Venezuelan politician and opposition figure. He belonged to the social-democratic party Popular Will, and was a federal deputy to the National Assembly representing the state of V ...

's Latin American tour in February 2019, Amoroso alleged in March that Guaidó had not explained how he paid for the trip, and stated there were inconsistencies between his level of spending and income. Amoroso said that Guaidó's 90 trips abroad had cost $94,000, and that Guaidó had not explained the source of the funds. Based on these alleged financial discrepancies, Amoroso said Guaidó would be barred from running for public office for the maximum time allowed by law—fifteen years.

Leopoldo López Leopoldo Eduardo López Mendoza (born 29 April 1971) is a Venezuelan opposition leader. López was elected mayor of the Chacao Municipality of Caracas in the 2000 Venezuelan regional elections, regional elections held in July 2000. He is the N ...

and

Henrique Capriles Henrique Capriles Radonski (; born 11 July 1972) is a Venezuelan politician and lawyer, who served as the 36th Governor of Miranda (state), Miranda from 2008 to 2017. Born in Caracas, he received a degree in law from the Universidad Católica ...

had been prohibited from holding office by the Maduro administration on similar pretexts. Guaidó responded that "The only body that can appoint a comptroller is the legitimate parliament." The comptroller general is not a judicial body; according to constitutional lawyer José Vicente Haro, the

Inter-American Court of Human Rights The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (I/A Court H.R.) is an international court based in San José, Costa Rica. Together with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, it was formed by the American Convention on Human Rights, a human r ...

ruled in 2011, after Leopoldo López was barred from holding office, that an administrative body cannot disallow a public servant from running. Constitutional law expert Juan Manuel Raffalli stated that Article 65 of Venezuela's Constitution provides that such determinations may only be made by criminal courts, after judgment of criminal activity. The decision would also breach Guaidó's parliamentary immunity.

Sanctions

Canada

On 22 September 2017, Canada sanctioned Amoroso due to rupture of Venezuela's constitutional order following the

2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election Constituent Assembly elections were held in Venezuela on 30 July 2017 to elect the members of the 2017 Constituent National Assembly (; ANC). Unlike the 1999 Constituent National Assembly, which was assembled following a referendum, the 2017 elec ...

United States

On 9 November 2017, Amoroso was sanctioned by the United States

Office of Foreign Assets Control The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is a financial intelligence and enforcement agency of the United States Department of the Treasury, United States Treasury Department. It administers and enforces economic and trade economic sanctions, ...

after the

Panama

On 29 March 2018, Amoroso was sanctioned by the Panamanian government for his alleged involvement with "money laundering, financing of terrorism and financing the proliferation of

weapons of mass destruction A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a Biological agent, biological, chemical weapon, chemical, Radiological weapon, radiological, nuclear weapon, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill or significantly harm many people or cause great dam ...

European Union

On June 29th 2020, the EU imposed personal restrictions on Amoroso due to his direct and active involvement in undermining and eroding democracy and rule of law in Venezuela for his role in running the non-recognized ANC in various positions of high authority and taking repressive actions against opposition actors.

References

1963 births Living people Members of the National Assembly (Venezuela) 20th-century Venezuelan lawyers Radical Cause politicians Fifth Republic Movement politicians United Socialist Party of Venezuela politicians People of the Crisis in Venezuela People from Aragua Members of the Venezuelan Constituent Assembly of 1999 Members of the Venezuelan Constituent Assembly of 2017 {{Crisis in Venezuela, state=collapsed