Justice First - History

History

Primero Justicia was created in 1992 as a Civil Association by a group of university students (under the leadership of Alirio Abreu Burelli) who were concerned about what they saw as a deterioration of judicial power in the country and joined their efforts to contribute to the 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 as a result of the 1999 Constituent Assembly of Venezuela, during which they presented a draft for the country's new constitution. Primero Justicia became a political party in 2000, initially as a regional party, and was 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 Primero Justicia 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. Primero Justicia participated in the last minute opposition boycott of the 2005 elections, so had no representatives in the assembly from 2005 to 2010.

This political movement's presidential candidate for the 2006 presidential elections was former congressman Julio Borges. He dropped out of the race after both he and Primero Justicia decided to support Manuel Rosales, then Mayor of Maracaibo, and former governor of Zulia State, for the presidency.

Henrique Capriles Radonski was elected governor of Miranda in 2008. The party got 6 deputies at the parliamentary elections of 2010: 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.