MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Former Venezuelan Supreme Court justice says she was coerced into barring Machado

“My relatives' lives were used to force me to sign key decisions that affected the democratic course of the country,” said César Siero

Former Venezuelan Supreme Court justice Bárbara César Siero has alleged that the detention of two of her brothers and her sister-in-law in late 2023 was used to force her to sign the rulings that kept opposition leader María Corina Machado barred from office. She made the claims in a 43-minute video posted on YouTube on Tuesday.

“My relatives' lives were used to force me to sign key decisions that affected the democratic course of the country,” said César Siero, a justice since 2014 and until 2024 vice president of the Political-Administrative Chamber. According to her account, General Guillermo Enrique César Siero, Major Guillermo Henry César Siero and Major Diana Victoria Justo were detained and disappeared from December 15, 2023, the same day Machado filed her appeal to recover her political rights under the Barbados agreements. The former justice says that, fearing for their lives, she signed the rulings in December and again in January 2024, and was later forced to resign: “They told me that if I didn't resign, it would go worse for me.”

Her three relatives were sentenced last week — the general to 12 years in prison and the other two to three — in the case known as Brazalete Blanco, over an alleged plot to assassinate then president Nicolás Maduro, a case she describes as “fabricated”. Human rights defender Rocío San Miguel was acquitted in the same proceedings.

César Siero says she appealed without response to then Supreme Court president Gladys Gutiérrez, then attorney general Tarek William Saab and Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino. She says she also wrote to acting president Delcy Rodríguez, and that only the new ombudsman, Eglée González Lobato, agreed to review the case; her amnesty request was rejected. None of those named has commented. The former justice has requested protection from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the UN human rights office and Human Rights Watch.

Machado was unable to register for the 2024 presidential election and the opposition fielded Edmundo González Urrutia instead. The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission has repeatedly questioned the independence of Venezuela's judiciary.

The allegation comes as the interim government and the National Assembly negotiate, at US-backed talks, a complete overhaul of the Supreme Court, whose number of justices has been expanded from 20 to 32. The committee that is to select them has yet to be formed.