You all know the horror story that Judge Afuini’s life has become ever since she decided to apply the letter of the law to Eligio Cedeño and let him go because he had been jailed without a trial for longer than Venezuelan law says you should. She was jailed on direct orders from Chávez on national TV even before there were formal charges against her. Since then, her trial has been delayed over and over. Despite her health problems, she was denied home detention until the situation became untenable and the UN, European Union and the Interamerican Human Rights Commission have asked the Venezuelan Government for her release to no avail.
What was not known to the public, but the Government and the UN were informed of, was that Judge Afiuni was tortured and raped while initially incarcerated at INOF in Los Teques. This was only publicly revealed this week, as a book was published with Afiuni’s story. The story is no surprise, Venezuela’s penitentiary system has become a terror story of how human beings are treated with less respect than animals at the country’s jails. What is sad is that Afiuni also had to suffer this additional violation of her rights as a human being to satisfy Chavez’ whims and that despite her suffering, nobody in the Chavez Government showed any form of compassion towards her.
But it gets worse.while the Minister for Women says that it has to be investigated and “if true” her rights have to be guaranteed (about time!), the former Head of INOF who goes by the name of Isabel Gonzalez tries to turn it around against Afiuni and says (without any support) that she will sue Afuini, because it is all false and her accusations violate human dignity”. They also now deny that the accusation was presented to the UN, which her lawyer clearly says was done and today Maria Corina Machado publicly scolds Chavez, because he knew the reality of what had happened to Afiuni.
That is the story of Chavismo, a lack of scruples, a lack of compassion and an ability to turn around any charges on the accuser, the persecuted and the abused. A complete inability to assume responsibility for anything, while trampling with people’s rights openly. Come on! Are we to believe that at INOF no woman has been raped or abused before? But these incompetent Government officials come out and hold a press conference as if they ran a perfect system, ready to pile on to Afiuni once more, without qualms and moral doubts.
It just seems that Venezuelan sinks deeper into a lawless and amoral state as time goes on. Where is the People’s Ombudsman when this happens? Where is the Prosecutor? What does this whole thing say about the venerable and amoral Hugo Chávez? The horror continues as I write. Forty thousand plus Venezuelans live in squalor in Venezuelan jails, abused, raped, tortured, without food, while the President of the “people” looks the other way, ignoring a problem too complex for anyone in his administration to even attempt to solve it.
But as Hugo himself,said on the occasion of a couple of hundred deaths in Venezuela because of his irresponsible Government, the “show” must go on, that is all that matters in the Chavez revolution.
Truly depressing…
Added: And now INOF sets up a media show with some interns denying this was possible.
The Devil's Excrement 
November 27, 2012 at 4:41 pm
Where is Iris Varela? I have not heard from her. As a minister of prisons, she should inmediately separate the director of the prison and trigger an independent investigation.
…The minister of prisons is a woman, the general prosecutor is a woman, the ombusdman is a woman, the chief of the Supreme Court is a woman, the director of the prison where this happened is a woman…and yet the only investigation that is triggered is under the pretense that Judge Afiuni is lying, to prove her wrong, despite that she said that she got pregnant as a result of the rape.
This shows that we are gender-neutral when it comes to incompetence and bad faith.
November 27, 2012 at 6:16 pm
Bruni, I think you know the real answer:
Venezuela is a very Chauvinistic place. I have engineers and doctors among my female relatives and they have done pretty well, I have several Venezuelan female friends who are now on top jobs in research around the world…Venezuelan women are courageous…but at the same time there is another world…there is a completely different Venezuela where physical abuse is rampant. Over 500 Venezuelan women were murdered in the first 10 months of last year by partners or ex partners. That’s ten times the absolute numbers in Spain, which has more inhabitants.
If that is so…
November 27, 2012 at 4:00 pm
Chavez is headed to Cuba for Hyperbaric oxygenation treatment. He must have serious damage from the cancer radiation treatments.
November 27, 2012 at 5:04 pm
Venezuelan air force loses Chinese K-8 (Hongdu JL-8) light attack jet:
http://www.6topoder.com/2012/11/27/ultimo-minuto-cae-avion-k8-por-desperfecto-mecanico-en-maracay-luego-del-acto-de-la-aviacion-foto/
November 27, 2012 at 5:21 pm
it could be funny… they lost two Broncos, one K-8 and then one helicopter in the rescue operation… not bad at all… almost a recreation of the ’92 loses…
November 27, 2012 at 6:12 pm
Wasn’t that the purpose? I thought they were enacting the glorious days of the coup.
November 27, 2012 at 1:36 pm
Egyptian protesters give us a new example how to defend our freedom.
November 27, 2012 at 3:09 pm
Egyptians have this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_(hieroglyph)
In Spanish that means:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cojones
November 27, 2012 at 12:19 pm
[…] blogger Miguel Octavio posts, With Afiuni’s Case, Chavez’ Revolution Shows Lack Of Compassion And Scruples What was not known to the public, but the Government and the UN were informed of, was that Judge […]
November 27, 2012 at 12:15 pm
Venezuelans: Wake up, it’s only going to get worse. Just sitting around complaining does not get the job done.
November 27, 2012 at 5:45 am
“People get the government that they deserve.” I wonder on how many of Miguel’s posts I can write the same comment, and still be on topic. This is three in a row.
Of course, not ALL Venezuelans deserve this government, but clearly, a majority. And not just those who voted for Chavez, or those who abstained. Others are also guilty. The people without morals 20, 30 or even 40 years ago. All those seeds eventually bear fruit, and it’s bitter.
November 27, 2012 at 10:31 am
Agreed, and now many just want to turn a blind eye using all sorts of lame excuses.Of course with passing time, it has become ever so much harder to get rid of Chavismo ; in the beginning he was less entrenched- however where there is a Will,there is a way, but it will have to start with the powerful emotion of profound indignation combined with the mental clarity of the absolute wrongness of Chavismo, not EVER the attitude of denial which is what( for the large part) we are seeing, especially since the last elections.
November 26, 2012 at 5:00 pm
Kudos to Miguel for exposing the unsavory side of dictatorships masquarading as progressive governments.
To me, this is further proof that western democracies and institutions, by being unwillingful to confront these regimes on the huge gap between what they pretend to stand for and what they actually do, are putting themselves in a weaker position and are doing the world a huge disfavor. Their fear of being criticized for being politically incorrect or for engaging in propaganda is leaving the field wide open tp the likes of Chavez, Iran, the Taliban and budding dictators like the Ks in Argentina.
November 26, 2012 at 3:44 pm
” Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.”
November 26, 2012 at 4:37 am
Miguel is right again (he is only not right with regards to the CNE records, Kepler running for cover…just kidding): things are pretty grim in Venezuelan prisons and they were pretty bad before.
And yet Eva is talking crap.
Hugo Chávez did not get that treatment after he was responsible for murdering the people he murdered in 1992. The situation has been deteriorating more and more.
I produced a chart for Wikipedia German (human rights in Venezuela).
Here you have it:
“murder in Venezuelan prisons since 1999”
This year will see a new record.
Prisons haven’t got worse because most murderers are outside killing people who, unlike Dudamel or Chávez, haven’t got body guards. 97 out of 100 murder cases remain unresolved in Venezuela, as opposed to 4 out of 100 in Germany.
November 26, 2012 at 3:28 pm
policía no monta cerro.
(I’m exaggerating, but not that much.)
November 25, 2012 at 9:56 pm
Added: And now INOF sets up a media show with some interns denying this was possible. http://www.noticias24.com/venezuela/noticia/137562/reclusas-del-inof-desestiman-denuncias-de-afiuni-si-le-hubiese-pasado-algo-lo-dice-el-mismo-dia/
November 26, 2012 at 5:08 pm
The idea that women report rape “el mismo dia” is one of the commonest misconceptions about rape. The idea that a prisoner, raped by prison employees, must report the rape to the guards themselves, or be disbelieved, is bunk.
November 25, 2012 at 6:16 pm
Carolina, unfortunately many, that is the sad truth and Golinger knows it. Golinger is just a Chavez groupie who has no qualms in saying whatever is needed to defend Chavez. Even before she began being paid by the Chavez Government she was lying about being a lawyer and had never passed the bar. She is worthless and has no scruples either, I dont pay any attention to her.
November 26, 2012 at 10:37 am
I don’t either, she is just another chula mas.
But my point is that Afiuni’s ordeal – aside that she was put in jail directly by the president – might not be any different than many of the other women in the INOF.
How many of them get raped and tortured, by guards and other inmates and it goes without investigation?
And yet, here I am speaking for all the inmates, and some of them don’t mind putting up a show for the government for few cobres…
November 26, 2012 at 10:49 am
You dont know what they were offered Carolina, is a terrible world to be trapped in.maybe they offered them a week pass for Xmas. Or better food. Or to change their cells…
November 26, 2012 at 11:21 am
I know. I regretted what I wrote after I did. The whole thing is very sad. I might have done the same thing thing. When you are there with no hope and nothing to lose, you just take it and that’s it.
Shame on the government though, for using them to manipulate the media.
November 25, 2012 at 5:55 pm
She was sent to jail without and investigation.
She has been incarcerated for over three years without a trial.
She was tortured while in jail.
She was raped while in jail.
I wonder how many of the 700 women in the INOF are suffering through one (or all of the above)?
November 25, 2012 at 6:08 pm
http://www.conflictove.org.ve/carceles/carceles-asi-es-la-situacion-de-las-presas-en-venezuela-reportaje-de-airam-fernandez.html
November 25, 2012 at 2:07 pm
I strongly suspect that Judge Afiuni was a chavista, prior to being nominated to the post. If my assumption is correct, I wonder if her views have changed. May Francisco Olivares’ account reveal this and the many more shadows behind chavismo (and Maria Gabriela)’s vendetta.
November 25, 2012 at 1:51 pm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/14/chavez-prisoner-maria-lourdes-afiuni :
“Government supporters have defended her detention as legitimate given suspicion over the freeing of Cedeño. “Her arrest … was not arbitrary but rather was based on solid evidence of judicial misconduct and abuse,” wrote Eva Golinger, editor of the Correo del Orinoco International.”
Here’s what Lil’ Eva states in http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5261:
“…
Releasing Prisoners Illegally, a Right?
Another case mentioned by the Amnesty International alert is that of Maria Lourdes Afiuni, a Venezuelan judge arrested on December 10, 2009 for aiding a prisoner to escape from a courtroom and flee the country. Judge Afiuni was charged with allowing Eligio Cedeno, a Venezuelan banker prosecuted and imprisoned for corruption and embezzlement, to exit her courtroom out a back door. She had called Cedeno into a hearing without notifying the prosecutor’s office, in clear violation of legal proceedings, and once she had him physically in the courtroom, she released him through a back door, allowing for his escape to Miami.
Judge Afiuni was subsequently detained and charged with corruption. President Chavez did publicly cite the case as evidence of corruption in the legal system and called on the Attorney General’s office to take action. But, the Venezuelan President was not responsible for the Judge’s detention, and her arrest was not arbitrary, but rather was based on solid evidence of judicial misconduct and abuse.”
Ommission, Eva, is a lie, when you purposely omit clarifying detail, such as the more than 2 years that Eligio Cedeño was imprisoned, without the benefit of a trial, this timing being contrary to Venezuelan statutes on the subject.
Scum. That is what your education and experience have turned you into.
November 25, 2012 at 2:19 pm
I thought that the UN Human Rights Council just recently decided that the imprisonment of Eligio Cedeño was illegal and a violation of his human rights. If that is so, then the imprisonment of Judge Afiuni is doubly illegal, since she made the correct decision in freeing Cedeño.
November 25, 2012 at 3:06 pm
“Ommission, Eva, is a lie, when you purposely omit clarifying detail, such as the more than 2 years that Eligio Cedeño was imprisoned, without the benefit of a trial, this timing being contrary to Venezuelan statutes on the subject.
Scum. That is what your education and experience have turned you into.”
”
That is precisely the point. Well Done!
Eva Golinger, not to be confused with that other cyanide drinking Eva (Braun) from another generation, is in fact an attorney! Both are blinded by their chosen religion, Nazism and Chavism. Golinger, the supposed educated Eva, purposely neglects to mention a critical point in her defense of the actions of the Attorney General. Cedeno did indeed spend two years in prison. It’s breathtaking. Is there no honesty left in her soul? Again, an excellent point.
November 25, 2012 at 1:12 pm
I’m really trying to express my feelings and comment but I feel completely at loss. Probably I’m becoming numb to Chavez’s government horrors. It wasn’t much long ago when I thought Chile’s price to get rid of a similar, disastrous government almost 40 years ago was way too high. I find myself a bit shocked of what I’m thinking now.
November 25, 2012 at 2:53 pm
I suspect a lot of Chavez voters would also support a Pinochet type, many seem to support Chavez because of his position as a Caudillo, not because of his supposed socialist ideology.
November 26, 2012 at 8:28 am
And you are right. After all, let’s remember Hugo Chávez praised Pérez Jiménez and he invited Pérez Jiménez to his inaugural speech (most forgot that). I know a couple of Chavistas who are Pérez Jiménez’s fans.
By the way: someone mentioned once something about a development fund Venezuela had when Pérez Jiménez came to power, a fond that Pérez misused. Can someone tell me what the name was?
November 26, 2012 at 8:36 am
As a reminder:
http://www.notitarde.com/historico/1998/12/31/pais/pais7.html
November 25, 2012 at 8:26 am
I meant to say “Human Rights Council”.
November 25, 2012 at 8:25 am
And yet, Venezuela remains a member of the UN Human Rights Commission!! Where is the UN in all this if the violation of Judge Afiuni had been denounced a long time ago? And why hasn’t Michelle Bachelet of UN Women not stated anything, especially since today is the NO campaign to Violation of Women???
November 25, 2012 at 2:42 pm
Deanna,
As ex leader of the Chilean Socialist Party, Bachelet has special consideration( and kid gloves) when it comes to Chavez.
November 25, 2012 at 9:18 pm
Then she doesn’t deserve to be head of UN Women; to really defend women, you can’t have kid gloves on when dealing with dictators like Chavez.
November 25, 2012 at 4:09 am
Naw this as MOSSAD or CID all over it Rudy, could even be FBI but certainly not KGB.
Now make like the wind….
/Flagg out.
November 25, 2012 at 3:23 am
Classical CIA smear
November 26, 2012 at 4:59 pm
Yeah, dunce, the CIA put Judge Afiuni in jail for following the letter of the law.
November 27, 2012 at 2:24 am
He is suggesting Hugo Chavez is a CIA agent. Interesting theory. If the US is really as Machiavellian as some Chavistas believe, it would make sense.
Chavez makes Venezuela utterly dependent on imported finished goods, including increasing agricultural exports from the US. Agricultural exports from the US to Venezuela have increased under Chavez.
He rattles his saber, justifying a larger US military budget, while utterly failing to actually pose any strategic threat to the US.
Finally, the US and Canada have benefited enormously from the massive brain drain Hugo Chavez has caused in Venezuela.
November 27, 2012 at 5:39 am
BINGO…the ruse is up.
November 24, 2012 at 11:21 pm
Of course, if the hospital did basic tests when her miscarriage occurre, eleven months after she was jailed, the perpetrator could be identified through DNA.
November 26, 2012 at 6:17 am
Paternity tests are fairly expensive, the materials themselves cost a couple hundred euros (dollars), so I doubt they’re under the “basic test” panel.
That said, any civilized police force would pay for them to find the rapist.
November 26, 2012 at 5:00 pm
I meant, if the hospital had done a simple blood test on the fetus, then the materials would be available for a further test by independent forensic examiners. Or, they could exhume the body of the fetus. Not very hard, really.
November 27, 2012 at 7:01 am
They definitely should’ve done that, yes. However, I doubt any sort of testing is standard on an aborted fetus, especially in Venezuela with severely malnourished secondary care. I would also persume the fetus was incinerated, to dispose of evidence.
It’s a Chavista crime and those who performed the operations were aiding and abetting a criminal, from Chavez down.
November 24, 2012 at 10:47 pm
The whole story is atrocious. Venezuela is ruled by a band of scum.
November 24, 2012 at 10:12 pm
She also got pregnant, it’s so sad. I don’t even want to comment further because I’m not going to say rational things.
December 4, 2012 at 8:07 pm
A 46 year old got pregnant. rightt. she’s lyihg