Chavez’s prisoners

Venezuela is suffering from one of the worst cases of oppression in its modern history. Under the leadership of Hugo Chavez, liberties have been stripped away from ordinary citizens that oppose the President or voice their discontent. The independent media is being relentlessly persecuted and journalists have been thrown in jail for voicing their opinions. Judges and even private business people are being harassed and the situation is getting worse by the day. In spite of this Chavez operates with total impunity.

After the 2002 coup attempt against him,  Chavez became so paranoid about losing power he thought it best to surround himself with people who would consider his position  key to their survival.  This meant turning to the Cuban regime that now depends heavily on Venezuela for oil and other supplies, which Caracas provides at little cost.

Chavez has adopted the Castro’s modus operandi to stay in power while oppressing the Venezuelan people. According to Havana, Chavez needed to go after the people who supported the coup to warn others of the perils of being against him. He knew that going after important media outlets would have immense repercussions and instill fear among journalists, owners of TV and radio stations. It is vital to control the message and prevent the magnitude of his mismanagement of the country and his international ties with rogue nations and terror groups from reaching the public. Life is very hard for Venezuelans and while the rest of Latin America is recovering strongly from the world recession, Venezuela is suffering stagflation. There is electricity, food and oil rationing and people are unhappy. He fully understands that independent citizens hold some power and pose a danger to his "Bolivarian Revolution" need to be silenced.

That is why in 2006, Chávez announced that the broadcast license for the second largest TV station, RCTV would not be renewed due to its open support of the 2002 coup attempt against him. In fact, Chavez has cancelled the licenses of dozens of critical radio stations and carries out daily attacks against the only independent TV network left in the country: Globovisión.

In recent months, Chavez has forcefully adopted a new tactic to silence the opposition and is using the anti-defamation law and the judicial courts to go after anyone that he deems a potential problem. Nearly 400 politicians are currently barred from running for office because they are under "investigation for corruption." In many cases these probes take years without charges being brought against suspects. More than 2000 people have been indicted on criminal charges stemming from their participation in protests over the last four years.

The following cases are  examples of what happens day after day under a government that has no respect for the rule of law.

One of the most prominent and saddest cases is that of Venezuelan biologist and farmer, Franklin Brito, whose torment began in 2002 when he dared to submit a project to solve a problem in Sucre Municipality, Bolivar state. His "crime" was to design a project using an approach that differed from the one adopted by Sucre’s Mayor, Juan Carlos Figarrella, and member of the government coalition party MVR. Brito demonstrated that the model that Sucre municipal council was proposing to combat the disease affecting the crop was not advisable. For doing so, Brito lost his job and other sources of his family’s income. Since 2005, Franklin Brito has gone on  six hunger strikes to demand an end to the violation of his rights. In December 2009, Chavez’s guards violently took him  from outside the OAS’ offices to put him in the Military Hospital’s psychiatric ward. Brito fears he will be declared insane and committed to a mental institution for life or even killed.

Then there is the case of Oswaldo Álvarez Paz, member of Congress for over 20 years who in 1989 became the first Governor of the State of Zulia being re-elected for a second period in December 1992. In May 2005,  Álvarez Paz created a new party called "Alianza Popular." But due to his growing popularity, on March 22nd 2010, he was arrested and charged with conspiracy, public instigation of criminality and spreading false information–crimes that could draw sentences of up to 27 years. Álvarez Paz had made televised statements on March 8th 2010, about Venezuela becoming a haven for drug trafficking and citing accusations by a Spanish court that the Chávez regime supports Basque and Colombian terrorists. In fact, his arrest was plotted by Chavez’s Cuban advisers from the moment he wrote a column in a local newspaper denouncing the arrival of a commander of the Cuban revolution, Ramiro Valdez Caracas, which stated: "The homeland has been sold to a foreign, miserable and failed communist regime. We are being governed by a traitor, who has no morals or principles, and who will bend to the will of his international handlers. It is no surprise that Cuban troops have arrived to defend the Chávez revolution." In May, Álvarez Paz was conditionally released, pending a criminal trial. He cannot leave the country and cannot talk about the case. He must also appear before the court every 15 days.

Another Chavez detainee is his former Defense Minister, friend and ally, General Raúl Baduel, who was, in fact, responsible for restoring Chávez to power when the 2002 coup occurred. After retiring as Defense Minister in 2007, he emerged as an opposition leader, publicly braking with Chavez. While the President was campaigning to change the constitution to allow him to stand for office beyond the limit of two terms, Baduel accused the President of attempting to usurp the constitutional powers of the Venezuelan people. He even wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times entitled "Why I Parted Ways with Chavez." A few months later, on April 2009, Baduel was arrested on corruption charges, accused of misappropriating state funds while he was defense minister. Baduel, who insists he is innocent, has been sentenced to eight years in jail and has been banned from ever holding political office again. All of the evidence against him was provided by pro Chavez sympathizers.

Another victim is Eligio Cedeño, a Venezuelan banker. He is in the United States, having been released on bail from charges in Venezuela of circumventing government currency rules to gain US dollars. In 2007 Cedeño was arrested and over the next year prosecutors repeatedly failed to turn up for court dates due to lack of evidence. As result, the United Nations in September 2009 declared Cedeño’s detention arbitrary. Cedeño’s friends and lawyers say that he became a target of the Chávez government, as a consequence of his support for political opponents including union leader Carlos Ortega and columnist Patricia Poleo, both of whom were forced to flee Venezuela and seek political asylum. Still, according to Cedeño’s lawyers, the criminal charges against Cedeño were part of an effort to force him to sell bank assets to individuals close to Chávez at an enormous discount. He was held in jail pending trial for 34 months, and was paroled on December 10th 2009 by judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni. Then he fled to the United States, where he was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. On December 2009 he was released on parole pending an immigration hearing.

Due to her decision to liberate Cedeño, judge Afiuni was herself jailed in 2009 for alleged corruption. In reality, she was taken by intelligence officers after ordering his conditional release pending trial for evading currency controls. A pro-Chavez congressman stated that a bribe was paid to Afiuni to release the businessman; she denies the charge. Afiuni said she was following United Nations’ guidance when she released Cedeño, who had been detained longer than the time allowed under Venezuelan law. The pretrial detention process had been delayed because prosecutors failed to appear at hearings due to lack of evidence. Her decision irked Chavez so much that he went on national television and said that she would have been put before a firing squad in earlier times. Immediately, he sent his secret intelligence police after her and she was put in a cell near inmates whom Judge Afiuni had sentenced on murder and drug smuggling. "I’ve received threats from inmates telling me they will burn me alive because they see me as a symbol of the system that put them in prison," said Afiuni, 46, in her prison cell. "I’m in this hell because I did my job as a judge in a way that didn’t please Chávez."

There is also the case of Mr. Guillermo Zuloaga, president of Venezuelan TV network Globovisión, who was arrested in an airport on March 25 for criticizing Hugo Chavez’s government in a media forum. Mr. Zuloaga was released several hours later and told not to leave the country while the investigation continued. International human rights groups and the OAS had pressed the government to release him. Attorney General Luisa Ortega said that Mr. Zuloaga had been arrested in connection with comments he made at an Inter American Press Association meeting in Aruba that were considered false and "offensive" to Mr. Chávez. Mr. Zuloaga criticized methods used by Chávez’s government to shut down news outlets, and was quoted as saying "You cannot talk about freedom of expression in a country when the government uses force to close media." He faces 3 to 5 years in jail for giving false information and offending the president.

Another regime enemy currently in exile is Manuel Rosales, a Venezuelan politician who was the most prominent opposition candidate in the 2006 presidential election, losing to incumbent Hugo Chavez. At the time he was the governor of Zulia, Venezuela’s richest and most populous state. Prosecutors say it was during his time as governor that he amassed illicit wealth – charges he denies. In April 2009, he stepped down as Mayor of Maracaibo when he was charged with corruption in Venezuela and fled to Peru. Rosales denies the charges, and Lima granted him political asylum. Rosales was also accused of participating in the 2002 attempt to oust the president. He was considered the most prominent leader among the fractured ranks of Venezuela’s opposition, frequently attracting the ire of President Chavez, who railed against him, threatening him with prison and accusing him of corruption and plotting to assassinate him.

These are some of the names of  Chavez’s victims. But there are many more  in the same condition that remain anonymous. Even though the OAS and the UN have somehow criticized the Venezuelan government for these abuses, the fact is that there are no serious consequences for Chavez and his cronies. These organizations do not directly demand the release of political prisoners nor do they call for special meetings of their member states to condemn in unison what is now taking place in Venezuela. The United States’ government remains silent, further empowering Chavez, making him feel free to continue on his present course.  Not only is Chavez following the Cuban model of governance but the same tactics of repression as he systematically silences those he perceives to be his enemies.