Judge Omar Mora Díaz, president of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ), Thursday said that until 1998, when President Hugo Chávez took power, the Judiciary in Venezuela was illegitimate.

Mora's statements came during a ceremony officially opening the judicial year.

"From 1830 to 1998, the Judiciary was cero percent legitimate in origin. It was always an appendix of the executive power or other branches of the public powers."

He argued that never before judges were appointed based on their academic, professional skills or transparent competitive examinations, but appointments were based on crony relationships over the last 50 years.

He ensured that the only ones who ever entered the judiciary were "the people who followed blindly and mechanically orders from the political groups that appointed them." This resulted in a culture medium favoring judicial corruption.