VenEconomy: Government’s Mission – Neutralize the Venezuelan Opposition From the Editors of VenEconomy Latin American Herald Tribune December 4, 2014
The government of Nicolás Maduro is using one of its hands to push Venezuela down the ravine of crisis, while the other crushes all dissent through its judges of horror.
This year 2014 has been a busy one for the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which has opened trials over any allegation made up by the nation’s governing elite. The goals of that persecution are varied, and may involve political opposition leaders, trade unionists, businesspeople or academics, as well as journalists, students, bloggers, members of NGOs or human rights organizations, or common citizens complaining or having any criticism against the Government.
On Wednesday, the guillotine from the judiciary was placed onto the neck of former opposition lawmaker and political leader, María Corina Machado, who was summoned to the Public Prosecutor’s Office to be "formally" charged for her alleged involvement in one of the thousands assassination plots denounced by Maduro in his short presidential term. This investigation was opened in March of this year and also involves Diego Arria, Henrique Salas Römer, Gustavo Tarre Briceño, Ricardo Emilio Koesling Nava, Pedro Mario Burelli Briceño and Robert Alonso Bustillo, who have been issued arrest warrants for their alleged participation in the assassination plan.
The Government’s persecution against Machado is not new, because this political leader and social activist has been a pain in the neck for the Venezuelan revolution since its inception. When Machado was chairing the local NGO Súmate, she persistently exposed irregularities and abuses during electoral processes with which democratic principles in Venezuela were being violated. She also called on the voting population to get organized so it could defend its democratic rights as she denounced at international level the advance of the "electoral dictatorship" that Hugo Chávez was carrying out.
At that time, the State threw all kinds of accusations at Súmate, and its president, who was also accused by the Chávez administration for being a conspirator and traitor to the homeland, was prohibited from leaving the country for three years.
None of this deterred Machado from her decision of fighting Venezuela’s communist regime. So she ran for the Parliament, a seat that she achieved in 2010 with the highest number of votes ever obtained by any lawmaker, and when in office she was one of the loudest voices of the opposition in the Chamber to criticize the bad government, which earned her physical and verbal attacks on several occasions.
The international projection of Machado and her flag for the defense of the Venezuelan democracy has been on the rise. And even though she has had several outstanding participations in the international arena, those that have hurt the Government most were when she was received in the Oval Office by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2005, and early this year when Panama gave up its chair so she could act as an alternate representative during a OAS Assembly, and explain all the attacks and violations of the rights of those protesting throughout the entire country since February 2014.
This exercise of continental democracy cost Machado her seat in the Parliament, when Diosdado Cabello, supported by the Supreme Court of Justice back then, spuriously removed her from office. In addition she was accused for the violent events that took place in the country early this year and again she was imposed a ban on leaving the country.
Machado was accused in no less than five active legal cases on Wednesday, although she was excluded of the presidential assassination, but got a count of conspiracy, a crime that involves imprisonment from 6 to 16 years. For now, Machado will not be able to talk about the case against her.
The goals pursued in this persecution against Machado are more than obvious: to get her out of the political scene, away from the international arena and silence her voice for good. Maybe the Government will shoot itself in the foot once more as happened with the case of Leopoldo López.
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