Chavez Charges Critic in Court
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

WASHINGTON – President Chavez is cooking up what could be an election day surprise.
On November 2, a Venezuelan court will begin hearing the case Mr. Chavez’s government is bringing against a civil rights organization that it alleges has worked with his opposition. The crime: receiving $31,000 from the National Endowment for Democracy.
The trial is a particular slap at the Bush administration, which proposed a significant increase last year in the endowment’s funding but was also slow to condemn an attempted coup against Mr. Chavez in 2002, initially recognizing the government that briefly came to power.
Should the recipients of the American aid find themselves in jail, the Venezuelan courts would be setting a dubious international precedent. A spokeswoman for the endowment told The New York Sun yesterday that the Venezuelan investigation of Sumate is new for the endowment, which has funded projects in such authoritarian countries as Burma, China, and Sudan.
“Even Augusto Pinochet did not go to the lengths the Venezuelan government is going to criminalize the receipt of international democracy assistance,” Jane Jacobsen said. Kenneth Wollack, the president of the endowment’s sister organization, the National Democratic Institute, said the Venezuelan case sent a “dangerous signal.” He added, “This would be the first time in the history of the endowment that there was a threat of prosecution against a recipient of NED money and it would have a chilling effect on all sorts of relationships.”
The closest recent comparison to the case against Sumate is when Egypt’s emergency military courts sentenced a renowned sociologist, Saededdin Ibrahim, to seven years in prison in 2001 for receiving foreign money through his center without asking for official permission. But unlike Egypt, there are no military courts in Venezuela. Instead, the state has indicted Sumate on the charges of conspiracy to undermine the republic, a crime very close to treason.
In an interview yesterday, the head of Sumate told the Sun that her lawyers said there is a 99% chance she will serve jail time. “They are trying us under a law against conspiracy, claiming that we intended to destroy the federal republic,” Maria Corina Machado said. “But precisely the essence of our work is to defend and strengthen our democracy.”
Under article 132 of the penal code, Ms. Machado could receive a sentence of eight to 16 years in prison for the crime of conspiracy. Prosecutor Luiza Ortega launched the investigation against Sumate in February after Mr. Chavez went on national TV touting Sumate’s NED grant contract, suggesting the authorities should investigate the matter.
Because of the investigation, Ms. Machado says her phones are tapped, the government reads her e-mail, and every month she must submit her personal banking statements to the prosecutor, Ms. Ortega. “I don’t mind if the government hears what I’m saying,” she said. “I don’t say anything I wouldn’t want them to hear anyway.”
Ms. Machado’s group organized the petition drive that led the government to reluctantly hold a referendum in August on the future of Mr. Chavez’s government. Both the Organization of American States and the Carter Center, founded by the former American president, certified that the election was free and fair, despite charges from the opposition that the voting machines miscounted the votes and people who signed the petition to hold the election were intimidated and denied government services in the run-up to the referendum.
While Ms. Machado’s organization took no formal position in the actual referendum campaign this summer, she has been accused in pro-government Venezuelan newspapers of having deep ties to the opposition and even the coup plotters of 2002. Indeed, Ms. Machado signed the guest book at the presidential palace during the 72-hour coup that Mr. Chavez was out of power in 2002.
The Venezuelan ambassador in Washington told the Sun yesterday that the trial was a legal matter and was not influenced by the executive branch of the government. “What is important is for the courts to find out whether money from other countries were given to NGOs for political purposes,” Bernardo Alvarez said. “In the USA, foreign countries cannot finance elections.”
Ms. Machado denies the charge that her organization was conducting political activities on behalf of Mr. Chavez’s opposition. “Sumate was created two-and-a-half years ago to address the profound social tensions in Venezuela and try to channel these tensions through a peaceful process,” she said, adding that most of the workshops Sumate ran were merely an effort to inform citizens of their rights under the constitution.
After the attempted coup in 2002, Mr. Chavez came under considerable international criticism for his plans to expand the number of justices on the supreme court with partisans; his requirement that the national TV station broadcast his often rambling tirades against his political enemies; and reports that pro-Chavez hooligans and police have harmed peaceful demonstrators.
“I am scared,” Ms. Machado said. “They are going after Sumate to make it an example. The government wants to make it clear that you will pay a price if you try to organize.”