My client Eligio Cedeño, who up until Dec. 10 was one of Venezuela's most well known political prisoners, released his first statement on Christmas Day afternoon since being legally admitted and processed into his new residence in the United States. In the statement Cedeño explains why he was forced to flee Venezuela, and the circumstances which led to his conditional release and subsequent jailing of the judge who issued the order.Eligio's statement is an exceptional declaration of principles, a counter-attack against all the lies and indignity he and the other political prisoners have suffered at the hands of the Hugo Chávez kleptocracy, and a call for rationalism and basic respect for rule of law.
As a side note, I have to say that I have been very dismayed by the
inaccurate perceptions that some people are gathering from the media -
but whether that is to blame on lazy reporters too reliant on Google or
the naivety of the audience is up for debate (bloggers are doing a way better job
in capturing what is happening). I couldn't believe I was still
getting calls from people who thought he was imprisoned, who had bought
into the narrative from Miraflores, hook, line, and sinker.
For one thing, people are incredibly taking the Chávez government at
its word - such as when the Venezuelan government announced the
"capture" of Cedeño by U.S. officials, as though he were doing
something illegal. In fact he entered the country just like everyone
else, and voluntarily applied for his residency processing just like
everyone else. He was never "arrested" like Chávez claimed on TV,
knowing full well that within one day some reporter would finally take
the time to look into the matter and get the truth to contradict him.
I suppose that "Noticiero Hugo" is the first place to go for breaking
news from the Department of Homeland Security. And this is a country
where a judge gets arrested for agreeing with an independent UN opinion
on arbitrary detention!!
Other news reports have begun to slowly wrap Eligio's saga into the
story of the other imprisoned bankers (such as the billionaire Ricardo Fernandez Barrueco),
the exprorpriations, and the announcement that Hugo intends to found a
new state-owned mega-bank - which I am sure will be really transparent. The two stories have nothing to do with each other, and even Cedeño's assets were plundered by some of these Boligarchs. Cedeño was unlawfully thrown into prison in Feb. 2007 before any of this ever happened, and furthermore one must keep in mind that his extremely modest upbringing left him in a social class that cast far outside the "old boys club" of Venezuela's financial community - those guys who are going down now grew up with a silver spoon in their mouths and much, much closer ties to the Chavez government. That may not sound very important to a foreigner, but it is very culturally significant.
Anyways,
enough complaining from me. He goes the first words from Eligio, who
is spending his first Christmas with family in almost three years. Our
translation might get a few adjustments in the coming hours, so stay
tuned.
STATEMENT BY ELIGIO CEDEÑO
December 25, 2009
As is now well known, this past December 10th, the 31st Control Court of Caracas, presided by Judge María Lourdes Afiuni, granted me a conditional release, after having spent the past two years and ten months in "pretrial" detention without a trial. I would note that Venezuelan criminal law places a two-year maximum on pretrial detention, except in exceptional circumstances which were not present in my case. Unfortunately, the Venezuelan government hopes to create the impression that Judge Afiuni's independent decision was somehow the product of corruption or a shady deal. Sadly, compliance with the law has become suspect in Venezuela, and those who dare to follow the law are subject to a moral and public "firing squad" from the Chávez regime. My first thoughts are for the brave judge, who was assigned to my case only recently, and whom I met for the first time when I appeared before her in her courtroom on December 10, but who today is paying for her judicial independence with jail time. Her treatment reveals to the world the true face of Venezuela's justice system, and underscores my feelings of solidarity with the dozens of political prisoners who today are in our prisons for thinking differently and expressing it publicly.President Hugo Chávez and the Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz, among others, have invigorated my cause by lying in public, demonstrating beyond any doubt that I am (was) indeed a political prisoner. They conveniently ignore the fact that in February of 2007 I voluntarily turned myself in to the authorities in order to face the charges they had made against me, and that I should have been tried in freedom. They also ignore the fact that my trial was improperly suspended in 2008, when a jury was poised to acquit me after a trial which lasted more than two months. Being kept prisoner for almost three years without trial has been recognized nationally and internationally as humanly unacceptable, in violation of the Venezuelan law the sacred human right to liberty, without even delving into the trumped-up charges of embezzlement of which I am accused.
These are the certain facts which preceded my conditional release. Judge Afiuni recognized that the refusal of prosecutors to appear at my preliminary hearing for the second consecutive time demonstrated the government's apparent lack of interest and seeming negligence on the part of the prosecutors, who typically fail to attend hearings in political cases, as a delay tactic. The decision was made in the presence of two representatives from the Attorney General's Office. The continual refusal of the prosecutors to appear in court violated my right to a fair trial. The truth is that no preliminary hearing was convened on December 10, contrary to the characterizations of President Chávez and his close collaborators; rather, the preliminary hearing was again postponed. This, however, did not prevent my defense counsel from renewing a prior written request that the judge review my detention status. The law permitted me to make this request, based on changes in the condition of my detention, as often as I wished.
On this occasion, we had renewed my request to be tried in freedom, and we presented an opinion released in September 2009 by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, part of the High Commission on Human Rights of the United Nations, which recognized the arbitrary nature of my detention and requested that I be released pending trial. In light of the opinion of the U.N. Working Group, and given the unexcused absence of the prosecutors and the lack of objection by the other government representatives who were present, Control Judge Afiuni granted my conditional release, with the requirement that I report to the Court every 15 days and refrain from international travel.
Notwithstanding the government's intentional disinformation on this issue, Judge Afiuni's decision was made in the course of judicial proceedings, in the presence of the Attorney General's Office of Venezuela, based on a recommendation by the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Her decision was based on our laws, together with international treaties to which Venezuela is a signatory and which is it required to observe.
The subsequent abuses against Judge Afiuni, the courtroom personnel and my attorneys cause me profound concern, and are inconceivable in a country governed by justice and the rule of law, where judicial decisions are reviewed on the basis of established rules and procedures, not on the basis of the personal whim of those who feel powerful and who manipulate justice for their own convenience and for political motives.
President Chávez is lying when he says that the lawyers and court officers had prepared signed release papers in advance. The Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz is lying when she characterizes the behavior of the bailiffs as "irregular" and claims that they took me out through a secret exit. The bailiffs took me out the same way I came into the courthouse. The bailiffs took me from hearings chamber to a courtroom, where at that moment the same prosecutors who claimed "they couldn't attend" the suspended hearing were there in the hallway. I waited in that courtroom until I was informed that I could leave, and it is only then that the bailiffs escorted me to the ground floor and the front door of the courthouse, where I left on my own means. The government plays with words to imply that there were no release papers, even though those would only have been needed if I had been in my jail cell and not in open court when the judge granted my conditional release. Release papers were not necessary given that I wasn't in the jail, but rather in court, where the judicial authorities signed and issued an order, as commanded by law, allowing me to face trial in freedom under well known conditions.
Here is how justice works in Venezuela: my constitutional rights were violated; the laws of the Republic were subverted; judicial independence was abused; my human rights and those of the others present in the courtroom were violated; the President of the Republic acted scandalously the following day, appearing in the national media to accuse, try and sentence the judge, the bailiffs and even my attorneys, without any investigation or due process. Justice in Venezuela is subrogated to the whims of a president who appoints himself judge and demands the maximum sentence against Judge Afiuni for having followed the law. The punishment demanded by President Chávez is not typical in our legal framework, and it is not a crime for a judge to render an independent and legal decision. The President of the Republic is not entitled to judge or sentence any member of the judiciary, which is constitutionally independent and autonomous. His conduct once again shows the precariousness of Venezuela's institutions and is a cause for international alarm.
These reactions made it clear that I was truly a political prisoner of the Chávez regime, and worse yet, a personal prisoner of President Chávez for reasons that still escape me. I had no choice but to leave my own country - particularly given Chávez's order to capture me, dead or alive, broadcast in the media - which is to say that the President placed a bounty on my head.
I have been a political prisoner. My imprisonment was clearly discriminatory. They have violated my rights to be presumed innocent, to due process, to a fair and speedy trial and the fair application of the law. Very sadly, Judge Afiuni finds herself in the same conditions I lived this Christmas and holiday season: arbitrarily detained, in violation of her legal and human rights as guaranteed under international law and the international treaties to which Venezuela is a signatory.
The happiness of returning to freedom and reuniting with my family will only be complete when the people who have been harassed, persecuted, and imprisoned for observing the law are vindicated and recognized as innocent, and when there is no longer any political prisoner in Venezuela because true democracy has been recovered.
Eligio Cedeño25 Diciembre de 2009
