End of preview - This article contains approximately 813 words.
Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article
Not a Subscriber?
Choose from one of the following options
Back
Weekly Report - 13 August 2026 (WR-26-32)
VENEZUELA: Chávez’s judicial prisoner finally wins freedom
Judge María Lourdes Afiuni was released on 7 August after what Venezuela’s opposition figurehead, María Corina Machado, described as “16 long and tortuous years of injustice”. Former president Hugo Chávez (1999-2013) ordered Afiuni’s arrest and “the maximum sentence…30 years in prison” in December 2009 after she released a banker accused of flouting currency exchange controls on conditional bail – who promptly fled. It was one of the most egregious examples of Chávez’s authoritarian rule. His subversion of the rule of law served to cow any other independent-minded justices, ensuring that the judiciary was neutered and became a pliant appendage of his government.
- De la Espriella confronts immediate crisis
- VENEZUELA: Chávez’s judicial prisoner finally wins freedom
- PERU: Fujimori shifts from polarising to popular
- BRAZIL: Ruling party launches Lula campaign manifesto
- BRAZIL: Corruption cases raise tensions between judge and police
- CHILE: Kast fights to keep focus on security
- MEXICO: Insecurity threatens Michoacán avocado trade
- MEXICO: Patching up relations with Peru
- TRACKING TRENDS
- CUBA: More efforts to boost renewable energy
- GUATEMALA: High-profile political prisoners released to house arrest
- Responding to security threats to the Panama Canal
- Quotes of the week