Young Venezuelans Triumph Abroad

Once again, a group of young Venezuelans has held Venezuela’s name high beyond our country’s borders. Seven fourth- and fifth-year students from the Academia Washington school in Caracas won first place at the 2nd International Moot Court Competition, held the week of January 20–24 in The Hague, the Netherlands, against participants from Argentina, Bulgaria, China, Georgia, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Africa and the United States.

The competition simulates the International Criminal Court. The final round was held at the Peace Palace in The Hague, and the members of the Venezuelan team were Fabiana Castro, Cristina Vargas, Rebeca Martínez, Ricardo Mondolfi, Sofía Bittolo-Bon, Victoria Di Paolo and Ana Christina Vivas, all between sixteen and seventeen years old. They faced the South African delegation in the final.

These young people recount, with great excitement, that their preparation began in October of the previous year. None of them had any legal knowledge, much less of international law. Together with their teachers, Ana María Applewhite and Stephanie Mitchell, and a recent law graduate of the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Adriana Torres, they gradually entered the world of international courts. They focused on crimes against humanity, specifically slavery, since that was the charge against their defendant.

At first they met for two or three hours a week, and as the date of the trip drew near their meetings grew to six to eight hours a day. Once in The Hague, their nerves grew, and they stayed up studying until three in the morning every night. They say they strengthened their arguments, edited their speeches and prepared as well as they could for the judges’ questions.

The judges were not allowed to know which country each delegation came from, and according to the young winners, the judges were impressed by how naturally they spoke and by their ability to answer questions. There were three days of preliminary rounds against teams from eight different countries, and they argued before twenty-four judges who were experts in international law. The evaluation criteria included knowledge of the facts and the law, persuasiveness and public speaking. On the night of January 23, it was announced that the two teams going to the final at the Peace Palace would be South Africa and Venezuela.

The young people recount: “The next day, it all happened. All the competitors went to the Peace Palace to watch the final round and the awards ceremony. This palace is the seat of the International Court of Justice, and the judges who presided over the final were judges from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Court, and lawyers in high-profile cases before international courts. We were all very nervous. South Africa, as the prosecution, presented its arguments first. Then it was our turn. Each of the three members of our defense gave their speech and presented their arguments. At that point we were bombarded with challenging questions from the judges, each harder than the last. All of them required a deep level of knowledge. The judges deliberated for more than an hour while the competitors had lunch. Then we went back into the spectacular glass-and-wood hall of the Peace Palace. There the judges gave a short speech, and after a few seconds of silence (which seemed like an eternity) they announced that Venezuela was the winning team. We couldn’t believe we had won against a team with extensive experience that was, moreover, a national team. It was a real source of pride to represent Venezuelan youth and the potential we all have. We realized that through perseverance, dedication and a lot of hard work, ordinary people can achieve truly extraordinary things. It has been one of the most enriching experiences we have ever had, and we are truly grateful for this fantastic opportunity at such a young age. Our eyes were opened to the law, to a world where laws are applied as they should be, where opinions are respected and justice is the priority above all else. ‘Dura lex, sed lex’: ‘The law is harsh, but it is the law.’”

A thousand congratulations to these wonderful young people, their teachers and their parents! These kids are a small reflection of the incomparable generation rising up in our beloved Venezuela! You are part of our great hope! A thousand thanks for holding our country’s name high in nothing less than The Hague, the international city of Justice and Peace!