MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Maduro's regime charges opposition leader Corina Machado with 'sedition'
“Our only option is to fight for democracy and freedom,” Machado said after she was indicted at the state prosecutor's office in Caracas on Wednesday. 
Prosecution claims she took part in an alleged plot to kill president Nicolás Maduro. If found guilty she could be sentenced from 8 to 16 years in jail Venezuela has indicted hard-line opposition leader María Corina Machado on charges of sedition claiming she took part in an alleged plot to kill president Nicolas Maduro, the state prosecutor's office confirmed.
Machado, who was at the forefront of major street protests against Maduro's government earlier this year, has dismissed the accusations as a charade meant to silence her and distract Venezuelans from a growing economic crisis.
If found guilty, the former legislator could be sentenced to between 8 and 16 years in jail.
“Our only option is to fight for democracy and freedom,” Machado said after she was indicted at the state prosecutor's office in Caracas on Wednesday.
“We're at the doors of a transition period,” she said, draped in a yellow, blue, and red Venezuelan flag as dozens of supporters chanted their support.
One of Machado's advisors said authorities had not ordered her immediate detention. There were no immediate indications the case could spark the same type of street demonstrations that rocked Venezuela for three months earlier this year.
Fellow opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, who with Machado kick started the anti-government protests, has been behind bars since February in what government critics blast as a crackdown on political foes.
They say Maduro, who was elected to succeed late populist leader Hugo Chavez in office last year, has tightened the state's grip on the judiciary and the electoral system, and wants to sideline political opponents ahead of key legislative elections in 2015.
Maduro, a former union leader and bus driver, dismissed this year's protests as part of a US-backed plot to destabilize his government. His popularity has tumbled since he took office, stung by shortages of consumer goods and soaring inflation.
The opposition's radical wing praises the fiery Machado, 47, for standing up to what they consider a dictatorship. But she is loathed by many government supporters, who see her as an out-of-touch aristocrat intent on toppling the government.
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Read all commentsOh Look, Treasonous e-mails.
Dec 04th, 2014 - 08:33 am 0How convenient to our neighbor to the North.
How distracting from the current problems.
How fake.
Google has already stated that these emails are fake. This has been reported in many countries, except Vnzla, where it is forbidden to report it, as it is 'part of the plot to destabilise the Revolution' apparently. The regime therefore, is saying that Google is part of the 'conspiracy'.
Dec 04th, 2014 - 09:44 am 0Maduro is a big fan of conspiracy theories, and supposed coups against him. He normally announces one each week, with promises of further crackdowns. Few people are ever bought to court.
Here is a fascinating blog, by a respected academic, not some random interweb nutjob;
http://venezuelaconspiracytheories.blogspot.co.uk/
MCM (María Corina Machado) was accused back in May, but it has taken this long for formal charges to be brought, (bought, perhaps is a better word...) as Maduro and his hench-men and hench-women needed time to 're-adjust' the judiciary and 'front-load' a chavista prosecution.
MCM is a woman of great diginty and intellect who is prepared to go to prison for her beliefs. Like Leopoldo she has not fled, but offered herself to the courts, knowing she has nothing to hide.
The courts, however, are mere tools of Chavismo. There is no true justice in Vnzla anymore, only the totalitarianism of the ruling party.
Dark days indeed.
She looks to pretty to be bad,,,unlike CFK.
Dec 04th, 2014 - 10:17 am 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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