In Venezuela, The Show Trial Begins: A Personal Story

[Zorro]

In Venezuela, the Maduro government is about to put a leading opposition politician on trial, or ‘show trial’ to be precise. Leopoldo Lopez has remained in prison since his arrest in February, spending almost all of it in total isolation. He turned himself in when the government accused him of incitement to violence. Since then significant figures close to Lopez have either been imprisoned, threatened, forced abroad or mysteriously killed in violent crimes. He had proved his political clout after bringing hundreds of thousands onto the streets in protest against the state’s corruption and authoritarianism, protests that continued into March and beyond. Some 40 people died during the unrest, and up to 5000 were wounded, mostly among demonstrators. At the time of Lopez’s arrest, though, clandestine snapshots showed that snipers from the government’s side had caused the first spate of deaths. Hardly, therefore, incited by him.

That’s the background. In recent days, one of his top aides, Isadora Zubillaga, an idealistic and articulate mother of two, has managed to flee to the US with her husband and kids. They are friends of mine from their previous time of residence in New York almost a decade ago. Isadora was always a bright, dynamic, energetic character, highly engaged in current events and issues everywhere, including Chavez’s nefarious power grabs in her homeland. It was something of a surprise, but not a huge one, when I heard she had embarked on a politically activist path. It was even less of a surprise when I heard they’d suddenly had to return stateside.

In the beginning, the young Zubillaga family had moved back home for the reasons that most people do, to bring children and grandparents together, to return to old friends and rituals and landscapes. But ultimately Fernando and Isadora had good reason to flee their country. Venezuela is ranked near the top in the world corruption index, and in soaring rates of violent crime, rates on a par with Chad and Haiti in government transparency and rule of law. Many of the Zubillagas’ personal friends have been robbed, not a few killed, this in a country teeming with police, armed forces personnel and militias. Unsurprisingly, most people believe that the very forces of law and order are responsible for a good deal of the crime.

In January, armed robbers entered the Zubillaga house in Caracas. They hit Fernando with their weapons, knocked him down and tied him up. They tied up Isadora and the two children and kicked their father Fernando repeatedly in front of them as they robbed the house. Oddly, while stealing the laptops they also took care to steal external memory drives. By their physical mannerisms Fernando instantly sensed they were trained law enforcement types, from the professional way they frisked him, the way they pointed their guns and other gestures. After the incident, police cars monitored their house and movements, for their own ‘protection’.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/melikkaylan/2014/07/24/in-venezuela-the-show-trial-begins-a-personal-story/

[kg4jxt]

1. What a mess

Please give my best wishes to the Zubillagas - it is sure hard to have to flee one's homeland. I worked in Maracaibo for two years from 2002-2004 and was there for the "Paro" and a lot of early pot-banging (whenever Chavez would speak on the radio - you could hear it all over town; the pots I mean). My wife and I were on a sailboat, and that year we had many co-workers asking if they could get a ride with us to Aruba if we decided to flee ourselves! But it was not so violent at that time, at least in Maracaibo. Now, I fear the worst for Mr. Lopez. It seems almost impossible that the government will release him - they will feel they have to convict I guess.