Former Venezuelan judge says threats forced her to sign Machado election ban

A former Venezuelan judge told AFP on Thursday that she signed off on banning opposition leader Maria Corina Machado from elections due to government threats, a revelation that has renewed demands to overturn the ban.

Barbara Cesar Siero, a Supreme Court justice from December 2014 to February 2024, said that two of her brothers and her sister-in-law, all military personnel, were arrested in December 2023 in an attempt to force her to sign the ban.

“I thought to myself: maybe if I sign, they’ll give them back… I ended up signing, and they kept them in detention,” Cesar, 51, told AFP.

Machado won an opposition primary in 2023 to take on then-president Nicolas Maduro in the following year’s election, but the ban prevented her from formally being named as a candidate.

Her party designated Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, a little-known diplomat, as her replacement at short notice.

Maduro was eventually declared the winner of the July 2024 vote, but the opposition claimed it was marred by fraud and the results were not recognized by much of the international community.

In January, Maduro was captured by the US military and taken to New York to face drug trafficking and other charges, in an operation that Washington said was justified in part due to the disputed election.

‘Illegal decisions’

Cesar’s comments prompted Machado’s opposition party to call for the immediate lifting of her ineligibility to run for office.

“Maria Corina Machado’s ineligibility, illegal from the outset… was only achieved by using relatives” of a judge “as hostages… This ineligibility must be lifted IMMEDIATELY,” the Vente party wrote in a statement.

The government used “arresting and punishing family members to break someone’s will. In this case, forcing a Supreme Court justice to sign illegal decisions,” added Vente, which called for an urgent investigation.

In December 2023, after her relatives were arrested, Cesar said she was brought nine orders to sign, including the ban on Machado.

“At that time, anyone who spoke out was put in prison,” Cesar said. “And what I might do could have consequences for them.”

Her relatives were accused of plotting to kill Maduro and the governor of Tachira in a fabricated case.

One of Cesar’s brothers is still in detention. Her other brother and sister-in-law are now free under judicial supervision.

Cesar believes there is no independence of the judiciary in her country, saying that the proclamation of Maduro’s victory in 2024 was “truly not in accordance with the law.”

“From that point on, all powers became illegitimate, completely,” Cesar said, adding that she views the judicial reforms promised by interim president Delcy Rodriguez as futile.

“What needs to be done is to apply the laws as they are written, without interference. Let the judges be judges, the governor be governor, the mayor be mayor,” she said.

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