Why Do Venezuelan Women Vote for Chavez?
If the international press is to be believed, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela is a dictator, a menace to the region and is driving his country to the ground. If that is so, why do his people vote for him in landslide numbers? Why does he have an enormous following of the women of his country? Are they all deluded? Are they all paid or coerced to vote? It would seem so to the casual reader of headlines because the achievements of the Chávez government are treated like a top secret: Venezuela’s new participatory democracy should not be advertised. A new form of economic and social development that does not pay homage to global capital should be shunned. Nevertheless, a new world is being formed in a Latin America that has refused to be any power’s “back yard”. These developments are not ignored in Latin America where the Venezuela revolution has had a deep impact. The women of Venezuela have especially embraced the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela, not because they are “followers” but because actually, they have become protagonists of a social, economic and, cultural revolution that has transformed Venezuela and the region.
It all started with the Constitution of 1990, written by an elected assembly in clear and inclusive language, which contained legislation that would transform the lives of Venezuelans and particularly, of women. It gave women the right of equal pay for equal work, (Article 91); the right to a life without violence, according to International Convention against Discrimination against Women (Article 21): the right to protection and public assistance for during maternity in all its phases (Article 76); and the now world famous Article 88 that recognizes women’s domestic work as productive economic activity entitled to public pensions. The constitution also adheres to the International UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child.
When the Constitution was only two years old and by no means was its mandate entirely implemented in law, in April of 2002, President Chávez was deposed and kidnapped in a coup d’etat orchestrated by the financial elites and abetted by the United States. It lasted 48 hours. The catalyst for its end was the tens of thousands of ordinary people who took to the streets to demand the return of their democratically elected president. They faced sharpshooters who were shooting indiscriminately at the crowds to create chaos. Masses of these people were women – women who realized that this government that they had elected now had been taken from them. The loyal armed forces then chose to side with the people and not the elites, and President Chávez was returned to his rightful position, becoming the first president in modern history to be deposed only to brought back due to widespread popular protest.[i]
There have been many accounts of heroic interventions during this critical time in which women figured prominently. Such as the older women of the slum area of El Valle who assumed leadership of the multitude that surrounded the country’s largest military headquarters, Fuerte Tiuna, and diffused a potentially deadly situation by shaming soldiers to put down their guns. Or the girl who gathered together her friends with motorbikes and actually took back the government’s TV station that had been ransacked and shut down by the coup supporters. President Chávez has often paid tribute to the extraordinary role women assumed in fighting the coup.
Today, 13 years after President Chavez’s first election, the lives of Venezuelan women have dramatically changed. The constitutional promises have been implemented in regulation and policy concerning gender equality and for the prevention violence against women. Laws have outlawed discrimination and have categorized 19 types of violence against women and created the institutions necessary to make the rights of women a reality.[ii] Granted, these issues all call for cultural and attitudinal changes in the relationships between men and women, which take time and education, but a clear legal basis is a strong impulse for such changes.
One of the main factors for the popularity of the Chávez Government is the reduction of poverty. This was largely attained because the government took back control of the national petroleum company PDVSA, and has used the abundant oil revenues, not for benefit of the rich as previous governments had done, but to build needed infrastructure and invest in the social services that Venezuelans so sorely needed. During the last ten years, the government has increased social spending by 60.6%, a total of $772 billion. [iii]
Women tend to be the majority among the poor all over the world due to their economic and social disadvantages and Venezuela has not been an exception. The Chavez government has significantly reduced general poverty from 49% in 1998 to 27% in 2011 and extreme poverty has been reduced from 27.4% (5.5 m) in 1998 to 7.3% (2.5m) today. [iv] The Organization of American States and the UN Development Program have both stated that Venezuela is at the head of the list of countries of the region that have reduced poverty the most.[v]
Economic milestones these last ten years include a reduction in unemployment from 11.3% to 7.7%; doubling the amount of people receiving social insurance benefits, and the public debt has been reduced from 20.7% to 14.3% of GNP. [vi] In general, the Venezuelan economy has grown 47.4% in ten years (4.3% per annum).
Among the many initiatives to promote popular economic enterprises, BAN MUJER was established in 2001, a bank solely for women. A very successful instrument helping women create their own businesses, it has given out 150,000 micro-credits to 2.5 million women, along with technical expertise and support for cooperatives.[vii] The substantive land reform also favours women, as women head of households are given priority when it comes to land redistribution. Furthermore, Venezuela is the country in the region with the least inequality (0.389 Gini index) and best redistribution of wealth between social classes.[viii]
Women in Venezuela have become not only the majority of the users but also the majority of providers of social services and anti-poverty programs[ix]. They are the majority in the election units of the governing party (PSUV) and very impressively, 70% of the members of the approximately 30,000 Communal Councils in the country are women. These Communal Councils play a pivotal role in decision making at the grass roots level to satisfy community social and economic needs and are the basis of participatory democracy.
Women hold some key and powerful positions in the government: as several ministers, President of the Supreme Court, Attorney General, National Ombudsman, National Elections Council, and Vice-presidency of the governing party PSUV are all women. Indeed, Venezuela is the country in the region with the highest inclusion of women in education and professional fields, according to the UN Human Development Program.
Health is an issue very dear to women’s hearts. In the new Venezuela, it is considered a human right, which the government is obliged to promote. Perhaps the most important, anti-poverty program that has galvanized women’s support is the government’s health care services and policies.
In 1998, access to medical care was abysmal and expensive, with only 20 physicians per 100,000 inhabitants. A creative arrangement with Cuba whereby in exchange for 100,000 barrels of petroleum, Cuba sends to Venezuela 45,000 health care workers, mostly physicians, [x]has made possible the health delivery program Barrio Adentro that places experienced physicians throughout urban poor neighborhoods, rural villages, and indigenous settlements. The huge majority of Cuban physicians in Venezuela are women. This program since its inception in 2003 has saved 302,171 lives and reduced maternal mortality as 99.3% of women giving birth attended by the Barrio Adentro physicians survive. [xi]
Today there are 59 physicians per 100,000 inhabitants, new clinics, and renovated and new hospitals throughout the country. There are now hundreds of emergency clinics, primary health clinics, and rehabilitation centres where a decade ago they were scarce. There is a new medical curriculum with the help of Cuban medical professors that emphasizes health as a human right and medical services grounded in the community. And, 70% of the new physicians graduating in the country are women.
One of the most important indicators of the welfare of a nation is the infant mortality rate. In 1998, that rate in Venezuela was 21 baby deaths per 1000 births. In 2011, the rate is 13.7 per 1000 births, the third lowest in Latin America, and an astounding achievement. [xii] Infant malnutrition went from 7.7% in 1998 to 3.2% in 2011, that is a 58.5% reduction, the 5th lowest in the region. [xiii] There are five laws that protect and promote breastfeeding, which is considered the very first act of food sovereignty. Breastfeeding increased from 7% a decade ago to 40% in 2010, and there are breast milk banks for babies at risk. In 70% of public schools, 4 million children are provided with free quality hot breakfast, hot lunch, and a nutritious snack before they leave school. There are 6,000 food dispensaries that feed 900.000 people in dire need– in total, about 5 million Venezuelans are provided with free food. [xiv] Thirteen years ago, there were approximately 8,000 children living on urban streets, and today they are practically negligible due to the programs to support street children.
Malnutrition in general has decreased due to these government food security measures plus others such as a real land reform, investment in agriculture, and promotion of cooperatives among rural workers and fishermen, and breaking up food distribution monopolies with a public food distribution network.
The better health of the population is not entirely due to medical services, but to the combined action on the social determinants of health: better nutrition, clean water and sanitation, more jobs and income per families, greater educational and training facilities, and greater social support and networking at the local levels, a literate and politically active and conscious population. And the government has had environmental initiatives and policies like no other previous administration, including, environmental assessments and protection, tree planting, water protection, energy efficiency and educational campaigns.
The government’s educational policies have rendered sterling results. Backed by UNESCO, Venezuela can claim to have eliminated illiteracy using the Cuban method of adult education with which 2 million people learned to read in less than 2 years. There are programs to help students finish High School, adult education to help people go to university, and a number of new universities in the country. The rate of students in primary school has increased from 85% to 93.6% and students in high school has increased even more, a 14% increase equivalent to 400.000 adolescents who are now continuing their studies.[xv] There are 20% more women than men continuing their studies.[xvi] And in the military field, which was a decade ago an exclusively masculine domain, today the majority of students at the military university UNEFA, are women. It is estimated that about 1/5 to 1/3 of the population of the country is enrolled in some educational program. Venezuela has met its educational Millennium Goals.
The United Nations has rated Venezuela among the countries with high level of human development, ranked #69 in its Human Development Index having advanced six places in ten years. [xvii]This indicator is supported by the Gallup Poll measuring happiness published by the Washington Post this year, that ranks Venezuela as the 5th most happy county tied with Finland.[xviii] This in itself should have made headlines around the world, but unfortunately, the international campaign to discount and denigrate everything related to the present Venezuelan government, denies the public knowledge of its considerable achievements.
While problems inherent to developing countries still persist in Venezuela, the progress that its government has made to satisfy its people’s real needs is impressive, and it is the reason that it has overwhelming support of women because it has improved their lives and those of their families. It is an indictment of the sorry state of the media in the northern developed countries, supposedly “independent” but prisoners of their political biases, that those achievements are not better known. On October 7 of this year, when President Chávez is elected with a handsome majority, those who have been fed by the mainstream media distorted views of the situation in Venezuela will be shaking their heads, not understanding that there are pivotal reasons why people in Venezuela vote for him, especially the women.
Maria Páez Victor, Ph.D., lives in Toronto.
Notes.
[i] Se video: The Revolution will Not be Televised” http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5832390545689805144
[ii] George Gabriel, Gender Advance in Venezuela: a two-pronged affair, 13 March 2009, http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/gender-advance-in-venezuela-a-two-pronged-affair
[iii] National Institute of Statistics, AVN March 4, 2012
[iv] AVN Prensa, 27 March 2012; National Institute of Statistics, AVN November 14, 2011
[v] Adrián Carmona, Algunos datos sobre Venezuela, Rebelión, marzo 2012
[vi] Adrián Carmona, Algunos datos sobre Venezuela, Rebelión, marzo 2012
[vii] Alba Carosio, Banmujer: 10 años impulsando la economía popular con igualdad, Rebelion, Feb. 4, 2011
[viii] National Institute of Statistics, AVN/ November 17/2010
[ix] The Guardian, Women Back Chávez, Feb. 25, 2005,
[x] www.aporrea.org/misiones/n199049.html
[xi] AVN Prensa 26 August 2010; YVKE Mundial/AVN/18 April 2011
[xii] Adrián Carmona, Algunos datos sobre Venezuela, Rebelión, marzo 2012
[xiii] YVKE/ 1 April 2011
[xiv] Statement by the Vice-President Elías Jaua, AVN April 23, 2012
[xv] Adrián Carmona, Algunos datos sobre Venezuela, Rebelión, marzo 2012
[xvi] UNESCO report, 2012
[xvii] AVN , January 13, 2009
[xviii] http://www.gallup.com/poll/147167/High-Wellbeing-Eludes-Masses-Countries-Worldwide.aspx#1
ZNet Articles
In Venezuela,
By Tatsuo, Miyachi at Apr 26, 2012 21:39 PM
In Venezuela, the key to state control lies in two things: oil and guns.
Those with the guns, i.e., the armed forces, have the ability to
threaten the state, but those with the oil have the revenues to silence
the guns and the populace. Therefore, if the state is to control the
populace and the armed forces, it must control the oil.
This model has worked relatively well for Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez in his 11-plus years in power. The state has taken control over
the oil revenues, the population has been heavily subsidized and for the
most part, the loyalty of the generals has been purchased by the regime.
The situation has by no means been all rosy for the Chavez government,
however. The government is dealing with a host of issues right now,
including a growing electricity crisis, preparations for legislative
elections in September, striking workers and mountains of debt owed by
state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), all of which require
expensive short-term fixes. Venezuela's pocketbook is being stretched
and the economy is in a state of slow decay, but enough funds appear to
be flowing for now to keep Chavez in control.
A number of Venezuelan opposition media outlets (many of which influence
the U.S. media) regularly convey the impression that the Chavez
government is on its last legs. These reports paint a picture in which
disaffected generals in a military overrun by Cubans are on the verge of
rising up against the president. The so-called "Cubanization" of the
military has accelerated in recent years, and signs of stress are
visible in the regime - but not to the level portrayed in most political
analysis on Venezuela. In particular, the military has been impotent
against Chavez for years. In the following report, STRATFOR will take a
deeper look at the restructuring of the Venezuelan armed forces under
the Chavez government and the steps that the president has taken both to
enervate and appease the military as a form of political insurance.
Ensuring Loyalty with a Pay Bump
The Venezuelan government is wracking up a hefty bill for expensive
electricity generators, fuel imports to run those generators, debt
obligations to foreign oil firms and various forms of political
patronage in the lead-up to September legislative elections. At the same
time, Caracas needs to deny the armed forces the incentive to challenge
the government as the economic climate deteriorates. The short-term
answer for this is a pay bump for the armed forces.
In his weekly television address, Alo Presidente, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez announced April 25 his government's intent to invest $145.5
million bolivars ($33.8 million) to raise the salaries of all ranks in
the armed forces by 40 percent, paid retroactively from April 1. No
other details on the division and distribution of the salaries by rank
were released. The Venezuelan military, which reportedly had not been
given a raise in more than four years, reacted with predictable
enthusiasm to the raises. Along with the rest of the Venezuelan public,
military personnel have been struggling with the country's skyrocketing
inflation, which a recent currency devaluation has exacerbated. With the
salary increase, Chavez claimed a "recently commissioned lieutenant"
will now make a salary of nearly 2,500 bolivars ($581) a month.
Special Report: Venezuela's Control of the Armed Forces
JUAN BARRETO/AFP/Getty Images
Venezuelan army tanks during a military parade in Caracas on April 19
At first blush, a 40 percent wage increase for an 82,000-strong military
would appear to be a very large fiscal expense that would stress the
government's finances. However, two factors make this wage increase much
less financially burdensome. First, in light of the January devaluation
of the bolivar, local-currency proceeds from oil sales have now doubled,
meaning the government will have plenty of bolivars to support the wage
increase. Second, since the annual inflation rate - as reported by
Venezuela's central bank- stands at about 30 percent, the wage increase
only amounts to around 10 percent in real terms. The devaluation and
recent changes to the central bank's charter will likely increase
inflationary pressure in coming quarters, continuing the erosion of real
wages.
Cubanization
The salary increase for the military also comes amid rising public
criticism of the politicization and so-called Cubanization of the
Venezuelan military. Former Venezuelan Brig. Gen. Antonio Rivero claimed
the "the presence and meddling of Cuban soldiers" in the armed forces
prompted his April retirement. Rivero said Cubans were operating at some
of the highest levels in the Venezuelan military, delivering
intelligence, communications, weapons and other training for the troops.
He also denounced the extent to which Chavez has undermined military
professionalism, and complained of the government's move to expand its
civilian militia. In the same address in which he announced the salary
increase for the military, Chavez addressed Rivero's complaints, saying
he was saddened by the general's attempt to draw attention to himself.
Chavez also defended his decision to embrace the Cuban military presence
by criticizing previous Venezuelan administrations for allowing the U.S.
military to staff the offices of the country's Army Command Headquarters
and manage Venezuelan state secrets.
While the opposition is eager to exploit the public relations sensation
of a general condemning Chavez's military policy, retiring generals and
the Cuban links into the Venezuelan military are not exactly startling
developments in Venezuela. The deep integration of Cuban forces in the
Venezuelan military has been an open secret in recent years. By having
enlisted soldiers and trainers percolate throughout the armed services
at virtually all levels, the Chavez government has been able to tap
Cuba's security and intelligence expertise to keep tabs on dissidents
and quash any potential threats to the government. For its part, Cuba
benefits from being able to influence the policies of a regional,
oil-producing heavyweight in South America. As Chavez's political and
economic vulnerabilities have increased, so have the opportunities for
Cuba to entrench itself in Venezuela.
This symbiotic relationship saw its clearest manifestation with the July
2008 passage of the Organic Law of the National Armed Forces. The law
redefined the Venezuelan Armed Forces from a politically nonaligned
professional institution (as stated in the 1999 constitution) to a
patriotic, popular and anti-imperialist body, as described in the
legislation. Chavez, not wanting to be caught off guard again by his
generals as he was during an April 2002 coup attempt, created the law to
develop a military primarily tasked with protecting and defending the
regime from internal threats. The Cuban government, wanting to ensure
Venezuelan dependency on Cuban security, is believed to have had a role
in one of the more controversial articles in the law. This provision
allows for foreign nationals (i.e., Cubans) who have graduated from
Venezuelan defense institutions to earn the rank of officer in the
Venezuelan armed forces.
Another clause in the law forces officers into retirement if they are
not promoted after two years. Though such provisions are common in many
militaries, Caracas has used it with unusual frequency as a tool to
remove potential dissenters. Under this system, political allegiance can
easily supersede military merit when it comes to awarding promotions or
forcing resignations. Cuban advisers, who have been tasked with
identifying localized threats from within the armed forces, are believed
to have significant influence on these decisions.
Chavez recently remarked in Havana that he felt like he was "one more
Cuban." But many Venezuelans do not like the Cubans' methods or their
growing presence in the country, and Cuban integration in the Venezuelan
armed forces appears to have alienated several high-ranking members of
the military. Chavez, however, has knowingly incurred this risk, and
undermining powerful military leaders was likely one of his key goals.
Problematic generals can be forced into retirement while the Cubans
closely scrutinize the remaining military elite, who are given perks to
keep them loyal to the government.
While this comes at the cost of considerable expertise and
professionalism, Chavez's goal is to ensure that the upper ranks of the
military lack the operational control to challenge the president.
Mid-tier members of the military probably worry the Venezuelan president
more, however. After all, Chavez was a lieutenant colonel with the
charisma to rally a sizable portion of the military and lower classes
around him in his 1992 coup attempt and victorious 1998 presidential
campaign. As long as he is the one occupying the presidency, Chavez does
not wish to see any lieutenant colonels following in his footsteps.
Since Chavez lacks the same reach and oversight with the lower ranks of
the military than he has with the generals, pay raises are a way to help
mitigate potential threats emanating from below.
Militia Insurance
Chavez has also attempted to make up for any lingering dissent within
the armed forces through the creation of the National Bolivarian Militia
(NBM) in 2007, which has some 110,000 reservists, and has since
reportedly grown to roughly 300,000 (though these estimates are likely
exaggerated.) Efforts are also under way to bolster the NBM with peasant
recruits and perhaps to form a marine militia.
Special Report: Venezuela's Control of the Armed Forces
JUAN BARRETO/AFP/Getty Images
Members of the National Bolivarian Militia on Feb. 20 in Caracas
The militias present themselves as a security element operating at the
president's behest. Though the armed forces reputedly are responsible
for their training, the militia does not exhibit the skills of an
effective security force. Militia members are comprised of men and women
of all shapes, sizes and ages from Venezuela's lower classes. It is no
elite guerrilla unit; instead, it is a poorly trained peasant force. The
state uses their exercises and marches as photo opportunities to
demonstrate a military force ideologically bound to the regime. More
important, the incorporation of the NBM into the armed forces provides
the president a useful chip to keep the military elite in check.
The Venezuelan Defense Ministry has also strongly resisted the
deployment and armament of these militias. The ministry is believed to
keep tabs on the militia's activities by maintaining physical control
over it weapons arsenal, which consists mainly of AK-103 and AK-104
assault rifles acquired from Russia. The militia forces may not be
well-trained, but ideology can be a powerful motivational force, and
they could gain strength in numbers as Chavez continues his push to
expand the force. Chavez's purpose in building the militia appears to be
to make the cost of a coup too high, given the risk of a civil war
between the militia and the military.
Chavez*s militia-building efforts and apparent tendency to put more
trust in his Cuban advisers than his own generals may be sore points for
many within the military elite, but these are also the very tools he is
using to keep the armed forces too weak and divided to pose a real
threat to his regime. So far, the strategy has worked. And as long as
the oil revenues continue to flow, the electricity crisis is contained
and the military's wages can be paid, the Venezuelan president is likely
to have the political insurance he needs to hold onto power.
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Ex-Venezuelan Supreme Court
By Tatsuo, Miyachi at Apr 26, 2012 21:37 PM
Ex-Venezuelan Supreme Court Justice Attacks Judicial 'Manipulation'
By REUTERS
MIAMI (Reuters) - A Venezuelan Supreme Court judge who was removed from his post last month for assisting a drug trafficker has accused his former government bosses of systematic manipulation of the courts, including meddling in drug cases.
Eladio Aponte fled Venezuela two weeks ago and sought refuge in Costa Rica, where he was in contact with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to local officials.
"It's very corrupt at every single level. There's a lot of manipulation," Aponte said in an interview with a Miami-based Spanish-language TV station, Soi TV, broadcast on Wednesday.
The interview was recorded before Aponte was flown out of Costa Rica on Tuesday aboard a U.S. government plane, the TV station said. It did not say where the plane took him.
DEA representatives in Miami and Washington declined to comment.
If Aponte's allegations are true, Washington would likely use any evidence of corruption to discredit the government of President Hugo Chavez, while also raising the prospect of charges being brought against senior Venezuelan officials.
Should Aponte agree to cooperate with the DEA, he will be the highest-ranking former Venezuelan official to testify about corruption in Chavez's socialist government.
The United States accuses the Venezuelan government of turning a blind eye to drug trafficking and appointing corrupt military officers to top positions.
For his part Chavez, who is battling cancer, says Venezuela has made great progress in fighting drug traffickers operating along its border with Colombia and accuses the United States of seeking to undermine his self-styled "revolution."
Robert Serra, a lawmaker from Chavez's ruling Socialist Party, told Venezuelan state TV on Wednesday that Aponte's backers were trying to turn a discredited figure into a new opposition cause célèbre.
"Venezuela's opposition is crazy, out-of-date, out-of-touch, is losing its political values and has turned to this," he said.
"He is a fugitive from Venezuelan justice. They have opened criminal proceedings against him, so I cannot speak about the real facts of the trial."
Chavez ended cooperation with the DEA in 2005 amid accusations that its agents were spying and violating the sovereignty of Venezuela, a major oil-producing nation that provides close to 10 percent of U.S. crude and fuel imports.
Aponte, 63, left Venezuela after a National Assembly ethics hearing stripped him of his post as vice president of the Supreme Court and chief justice of the criminal appeals court.
WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN
His current whereabouts are unknown, although a senior Costa Rican official confirmed Aponte left the Central American country on Tuesday morning on a U.S. government plane after speaking with DEA agents in the capital, San Jose.
"Mr. Aponte, when he was in Costa Rica, made direct contact with U.S. authorities ... including the DEA," Mauricio Boraschi, Costa Rica's director of Intelligence and National Security, told Reuters on Wednesday.
Aponte was a low-profile military lawyer whose career took off as a result of a military purge by Chavez following a short-lived coup in 2002 during which the president was briefly ousted from office.
He was fired by the National Assembly after allegations surfaced that he had authorized the issuance of a special government identity card for Walid Makled, a Venezuelan businessman jailed on drug trafficking charges.
Makled, who is wanted in the United States on drug trafficking charges, was arrested in neighboring Colombia in 2010 and was later extradited to Venezuela.
In the 41-minute interview that Soi TV said was recorded in Costa Rica last week, Aponte admitted his role in supplying the identity card to Makled, but said he issued many of them and had no knowledge of his involvement in drug trafficking at the time.
Aponte said he knew Makled because they both hailed from the city of Valencia in the state of Carabobo, where Makled was a successful businessman involved in the oil industry, as well as government social programs.
Sweating profusely throughout the interview, Aponte admitted to perverting the course of justice and doing the government's bidding at the request of both civilian and military officials working in the presidential palace.
The justice system in Venezuela is manipulated by government officials like "Plasticine," he said.
WHY DID HE NOT SPEAK OUT?
Asked why he did not speak out sooner, Aponte said, "Because I believed in the revolutionary process." He said he later began to have misgivings but held his tongue "because they would have fired me."
Aponte said he was frequently told by the presidential palace how to rule on judicial cases that the government was interested in. He said he was often contacted by Alejandro Castillo, a federal prosecutor, whom Aponte described as being part of a group of "preferred" officials inside the Attorney General's office who worked closely with the palace.
He said top government officials regularly met judges and prosecutors in the vice president's office to discuss what action to take in legal cases that were important to the government. "That's where the directives of the justice system come from," he said.
In the interview, Aponte described how he was ordered by senior government officials to release a Venezuelan army officer, Lieutenant Colonel Pedro Maggino Belichi, who had been arrested in November 2005 for allegedly helping smuggle 2 tons of cocaine in the state of Lara.
Aponte said he was assigned the case and told to free Maggino in June 2006 by Captain Antonio Morales, a military officer who he said was part of Chavez's inner circle.
Aponte said he was contacted by several other senior officials including then-Defense Minister General Raul Baduel, who later fell out of favor and is currently in jail on corruption charges.
Aponte said he was told Maggino "was a good guy, that it was the president's order. That the president was very interested in the case."
Aponte also admitted to signing orders to keep some government opponents in jail as political prisoners, but said he now repented of his deeds. "If I did something wrong, I take the blame, and if I have to pay for it, so be it," he said. "I know what's coming my way, and what's coming my way isn't good."
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/04/19/world/americas/19reuters-venezuela-judge-usa.html?ref=americas&pagewanted=print
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