The Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (CRBV, 1999) when making the distribution of public powers, starting from a federal scheme, indicates - from a territorial perspective - that Venezuela has three levels: National (Republic), State and Municipal.
On the other hand, the Basic Text provides that “… in order to politically organize the Republic, the national territory is divided into the states, the Capital District, the federal agencies and the federal territories. The territory is divided into Municipalities… ”(my italics)
When referring to the states, the Constituent Assembly stated that "… they are autonomous and politically equal entities, with full legal personality and are obliged to maintain independence, sovereignty and national integrity and to comply with the Constitution and laws of the Republic."
Each state must have an Executive Power, in charge of the Governor; The Legislative Power is exercised by a Legislative Council, made up of a number of not more than fifteen nor less than seven legislators, who proportionally represent the population of the State and the Municipalities; They are elected by the people following the parameters for the elections in accordance with the Electoral Power, by an organ of the National Electoral Council, and may be reelected.
A State Comptroller's Office is also planned, which exercises control, surveillance and oversight of state income, expenses and assets.
Within the competences of the State Legislative Councils is to dictate its Constitution to organize its public powers, following the guidelines of the CRBV; the organization of the Municipalities and other local entities and their political and territorial division. (My italics)
This means that each federal entity has a normative instrument called the Constitution, which only governs the respective territory, and cannot invade national or municipal powers.
The organization of the municipalities, understood as creation, merger or suppression requires the intervention - among others - of the State Legislative Council; In this sense, the Organic Law of the Legislative Councils of the States, the Organic Law of the Municipal Public Power (LOPPM, 2010), the Organic Law of the Federal Government Council (2010) are normative instruments to consider.
The State Legislative Councils approve a law that they usually call the Political and Territorial Division Law or another similar one where they establish which are the municipalities that make up the entity, expressing data such as the parishes that comprise it, the geographical limits with their coordinates to delimit the each one's territory.
As an example, the federal entity that we know as the Miranda State, according to its State Constitution (2006), is called the Bolivarian State of Miranda.
Likewise, the Miranda State Territorial Political Division Law (2004) lists the existing municipalities in the State, being able to mention Baruta, whose capital is Nuestra Señora del Rosario de Baruta, which is known as the town of Baruta; integrated by the parishes Our Lady of the Rosary of Baruta, El Cafetal and Las Minas. It has the special characteristic that it is also part of the Caracas Metropolitan Area, for which the Special Law of the Municipal Regime at 2 levels of the Caracas Metropolitan Area (2009) should be consulted. Another similar case is the Capital District, made up of the Bolivarian Libertador Municipality, which is evidenced by the Law on the Organization and Regime of the Capital District (2009).
For its part, the Ambrosio Plaza Municipality, whose capital is Guarenas, is made up of a parish called Guarenas.
On the occasion of the approval of the so-called popular power laws, it becomes important, since issues such as the communes, the motor development districts and the transfer of community management, among others, are linked to the legal order of the states and municipalities, the which have been causing controversy in the political and citizen field.
