Chomsky seeks release of Venezuelan judge

July 05, 2011|Associated Press

CARACAS - One of President Hugo Chávez’s most well-known inspirations, leftist intellectual Noam Chomsky, is challenging the Venezuelan leader on a key human rights case by asking him to release a judge detained since 2009.

In a public letter released over the weekend, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology linguistics professor condemned the “degrading treatment’’ suffered by Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni and declared himself in “total solidarity’’ with her.

Afiuni sparked the Chávez government’s ire after she conditionally released banker Eligio Cedeno, who was charged with corruption. According to the organization Human Rights Watch, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions declared Cedeno’s detention arbitrary.

Venezuelan authorities arrested Afiuni after Cedeno’s release and accused her of abuse of authority, corruption, and “favoring the evasion of justice,’’ Human Rights Watch said. Chávez called her “a bandit’’ and said she should receive a 30-year prison sentence, according to the group.

Afiuin was initially held in a women’s prison, where her supporters say she was repeatedly insulted and threatened. Chomsky said his private communications with the Chávez government may have helped persuade it to move Afiuni to house arrest.

“I felt that it was appropriate to try and make a public statement in the hope and the expectation that it could lead to a humanitarian gesture to release her,’’ Chomsky said. “I thought that there was more that should be done.’’

Chomsky said he didn’t believe the judge’s case was part of a larger trend of repression against government critics in Venezuela. But Human Rights Watch has said the Venezuelan government has “systematically undermined journalistic freedom of expression’’ and the independence of the nation’s judges.