Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma said the situation facing the Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni Mora for being allegedly involved in irregularities that allowed Eligio Cedeño to go free is a testament to the fact that there is no rule of law in Venezuela. Ledezma said President Chávez could not have given the order keep Cedeño in prison if the point of having judges is to determine if that action was wrong or not. "The president dispatches and determines that rulings are changed (...) What kind of justice is this?" asked Ledezma. Relatives of Judge Afiuni Mora and sheriffs Rafael Rondón and Carlos Lotuffo, detained for their alleged involvement in the Cedeño's release, rejected the new rulings against them.
Nelson Afiuni, brother of Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni Mora, said the decisions of the 50th Control Court to order the detention of Rafael Rondón and Carlos Lotuffo in Yare prison and of Judge Afiuni to the National Institute of Feminine Orientation (INOF) in Los Teques are equivalent to death sentences. After the hearing, Nelson Afiuni said Disip officials would have collaborated to ensure that Judge Afiuni was not maltreated for some of the inmates who had been sentenced in the past. "We fear that their lives are threatened. We requested for them to be left with the Disip and the judge overseeing the case did not accept it; that is, they were sent to kill because they know full well that they have arrested people who are imprisoned in both INOF as well as Yare" said Afiuni. Milagros Rondón, sister of sheriff Franklin Rondón, said that judicial power has died in Venezuela, and urged civil society to respond to the outrages.
Agricultural businessman Franklin Brito said Sunday in an exclusive interview with Unión Radio that his "life is endangered" by the decision of the 23rd Control Court to intern him at the Military Hospital as a measure for "safeguarding health." He blamed the president for "everything that happens." He said there "still has been no medical exam" and asked the court to allow him to resume his hunger strike. "I am of sound mind and body. Under these conditions, I am responsible for my health," he said. "I think my life is in danger, and that they are trying to make me think I'm crazy or something," said Brito.
As of yesterday morning, it has been 10 years since the Bolivarian Constitution of 1999 was approved, and National Assembly deputies looked through the document for a possible way to overcome the political crisis and rebuild the state. Eustoquio Contreras put forth that Parliament could be discussing this issue at the special meeting to be held tomorrow, to which President Chávez is invited. The PSUV assemblyman believes that "it is not a fantasy to say that the country is in political crisis." He praised the progress of the current constitution, which, as he pointed out, was a cultural, political and historical change that was appropriate at a particular time but now "falls short".
President Chávez on Sunday classified as "threats" the warnings from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the consequences of having relations with Iran, and considered them signs of "an imperial offensive." On Friday, Hillary Clinton warned Latin American countries to think twice before expanding its relations with the Iranian regime. "If you want to flirt with Iran, you should consider carefully what might be the consequences," Clinton said at a seminar on diplomacy at the State Department. "These declarations are threats, especially against Venezuela and Bolivia and, therefore, against all of Alba," he said.
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