Editorial: Nicolas Maduro’s Farce

The government of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has build a shameful fraudulent  scheme in an appalling pursuit of a conviction against opposition leader Leopoldo López, which has already gotten him a 14-year prison sentence.

The recent statements in exile of none other than the case’s prosecutor, Franklin Nieves, have made it clear that the ongoing trial against López is a monumental farce.

The statements are now followed by those of Rosa Amelia Asuaje, who allegedly participated in the case as an expert of the Universidad de Los Andes. She is a key witness for the mendacious arguments used by Maduro’s government to obtain the conviction of the Voluntad Popular leader.

We are talking about a linguist who was assigned to analyze López’ messages in order to establish whether the opposition leader incited violence on February 12 2014. The expert claims that she never said that López incited violence.

She also claims that none of the alleged explicit messages that, according to judge Susana Barreiros, the expert attributed to López, had been included in her report. In other words, the judge attributed to her assertions that she simply did not make. In any normal country, this alone would suffice to absolutely nullify the judicial prosecution against Leopoldo López.

In an editorial column published in the Venezuelan newspaper Panorama, the linguist called the ongoing trial against López a total sham, and immediately flew Venezuela fearing for her life. She is now applying for asylum in the U.S.

Asuaje also pointed out that the head of the Department of Common Crimes at Venezuela’s Public Ministry, Nelsón Mejías pressured her to write a report more in line with the ruling party’s false accusations. It is now clear that the trial against López has been built upon manipulated and false evidence, and distorted by magistrates who, obviously, are not impartial.

What is going on with Venezuela’s Judicial Power is extremely serious and we must watch closely.