An opponent of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez must remain in jail until he goes on trial for remarks he made on a TV talk show, a judge ruled on Wednesday.
The judge refused to release Oswaldo Alvarez Paz on grounds that he could flee the country and ordered him to remain in police custody at the headquarters of Venezuela’s state intelligence service, said his attorney, Omar Estacio.
Alvarez Paz has been charged with conspiracy, spreading false information and publicly inciting crime. The charges stem from his comments during a talk show on March 8, when he said Venezuela has turned into a haven for drug traffickers and he also backed allegations by a Spanish judge that Venezuela’s government has cooperated with the Basque separatist group ETA and Colombian rebels.
Chavez has dismissed those accusations as lies. Alvarez Paz stands by his words and denies breaking the law.
His detention has drawn condemnation from Venezuela’s opposition, human rights activists and the US government.
Opposition leaders and rights activists argue the prosecution of Alvarez Paz amounts to political persecution — an allegation that government officials deny.
Alvarez Paz’s lawyer said he would appeal Wednesday’s ruling because the judge “violated due process and the right to defense” by failing to provide evidence that his client would flee the country if he were released ahead of the trial.
Prosecutors say Alvarez Paz — who ran unsuccessfully for president in 1993 could face two to 16 years in prison if convicted of any of the three charges.
In other news, Chavez is adding three days to the Easter holiday to bolster his government’s efforts to reduce electricity consumption as the country struggles with a severe energy crisis.
Chavez said on Wednesday he had designated the three days after Easter Sunday as days off. Coupled with Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, already holidays, Venezuelans will now have an entire week off from work.
Business groups said the decision would disrupt industrial production, interfere with tax deadlines and possibly cause shortages of some foods that are already scarce.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS