A prosecutor dares president

Alex VASQUEZ -

Her enemies have branded her insane, but those close to Venezuela’s Attorney General Luisa Ortega say her defiance of the government over the country’s deadly political crisis is pure courage.

A longtime sympathizer of the socialist movement that brought President Nicolas Maduro to power, Ortega, 59, says her relatives have received threats in recent weeks since she has emerged as the biggest challenge to his authority.

Ortega’s legal challenges have put more pressure on Maduro than months of legislative manoeuvres by opponents who blame the president for Venezuela’s economic collapse. In return, Maduro’s allies have set the machinery of the state judiciary in motion against her.

On Tuesday they secured a court ruling clearing the way for Ortega to be put on trial for alleged professional failings. Her opponents hope to fire her by July 30. Various pro-government officials have branded Ortega a traitor. Pro-government lawmaker Pedro Carreno on June 13 filed a motion in the legislature calling for experts to declare she was suffering from “insanity.” But Ortega’s husband of 18 years, socialist lawmaker German Ferrer, said she was “doing her duty” in defying Maduro.

Ortega was a supporter of “Chavismo,” the socialist movement launched by Maduro’s late predecessor Hugo Chavez in the 1990s.

Chavez approved her appointment as attorney general in 2007, and she was re-appointed in 2014 by a pro-Chavez legislature. Ortega was also behind the controversial case that led to prominent opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez being handed a 14-year prison sentence in 2014. Lopez was convicted of inciting violence during protests that led to deadly clashes. Another prosecutor in that case later fled Venezuela and declared that Lopez’s conviction was ill-founded.

Ortega spoke out publicly when the Supreme Court tried to seize power from the legislative National Assembly in late March, branding the short-lived move “a breach of constitutional order.”

The rift laid bare by that declaration has since appeared to widen.

If a party stalwart such as Ortega can break ranks, analysts wonder, others might follow. Ortega has filed legal challenges against Maduro’s plan for constitutional reform, alleging it is a threat to democracy and human rights. She has accused the military of repressing protesters in months of deadly anti-government clashes that have left 74 people dead.

Pro-Chavez political scientist Nicmer Evans, a Maduro critic, said Ortega had a critical role to play in “restoring the country’s institutions.”

“She represents the worthy, democratic side of Chavismo,” Evans said, “as opposed to the totalitarian pretensions of Maduro’s camp.” — AFP