The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) admitted the request for acknowledgment presented by the defense of the Zulian businessman Jaime Andrés Ruiz Salamanca and ordered the immediate suspension of the criminal trial being carried out against him in the state of Zulia.
Such decision is contained in ruling number 21, the announcement of which is reflected on the digital portal of the highest court of Venezuela.
Through that decision, the magistrates ordered to collect the file, as well as paralyze the proceedings of the Third Trial Court of the Criminal Judicial Circuit of the state of Zulia, which implies the suspension of the oral debate while the highest interpreter of the Constitution analyzes the allegations of alleged procedural irregularities raised by the defense.
This case dates back to a decision of October 2025 with which the Civil Chamber of the TSJ declared the civil eviction process null and void. This civil trial concerns the eviction of the property where one of Ruiz Salamanca’s companies located in Zulia operates. Prosecutor Araque Díaz appeared at that establishment on June 5, 2025 and deprived him of his freedom, accusing him of invading that property.
The previous owner had filed a civil lawsuit against Ruiz Salamanca. But the Civil Chamber declared the absolute nullity of all actions in the aforementioned eviction process, since the admission order of June 13, 2023 and ordered to reinstate the process to the state of admitting and substantiating the claim through the oral procedure, in accordance with article 43 of the Commercial Leasing Law.
Despite this civil annulment, the criminal process continued its course in Zulia until the defense requested constitutional review for alleged violations of due process, subversion of the procedural order in the processing of exceptions and impact on the right to defense.
In the middle of this civil process, the then eighth prosecutor of the Public Ministry in the state of Zulia, Mariángelis Araque Díaz, intervened, who directed the initial investigation of the case. She allegedly demanded a dollar sum from him to get him out of the matter.
Due to these actions, prosecutor Araque Díaz was arrested and later accused by the Public Ministry for alleged crimes of corruption and extortion in actions linked to this case.
But while the substantive review takes place in the Constitutional Chamber, the trial is suspended and the trial court must refer all of the proceedings to the TSJ, the ruling says. The businessman remains deprived of liberty while this phase of constitutional control develops.
