The Spanish government was involved in high-level diplomatic efforts to Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni, imprisoned in Venezuela for 14 months awaiting trial, to improve their situation. Diplomatic sources claimed that such negotiations had occurred prior to the departure of Afiuni in prison, in early February.
This point was not confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Maria Lourdes Afiuni was arrested in December 2009 accused of corruption and helping to flee to a businessman who was released on parole after three years in prison awaiting trial. President Hugo Chavez called for his arrest and called for a severe sentence for her.
The case has been reported Afiuni specifically for organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as a human rights violation because it is allegedly a victim of a political process led by President Hugo Chávez. In early February, Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni released from prison to be submitted to an operation in a cancer hospital and later passed to enforce the custody arrested at her home.
The conditions for this change was the ban on speaking to international media. By then, the situation of Afiuni had been denounced by international organizations as the closest thing that can be found in Venezuela, a political prisoner. The last time the Spanish government had ruled on this case was the November 30, 2010.
Questioned about it by Senator Iñaki Anasagasti NIP, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trinidad Jimenez, said in the Spanish Senate that would follow up "concrete" in this case. The senator asked to send foreign diplomats to visit the judge at the prison, something that the minister Jimenez refused to commit in public.
Likewise, last Thursday the Ibero-American Affairs Committee of the Senate, chaired by himself Anasagasti, adopted by a large majority and the sole vote against the PSOE a motion urging the government to send observers to Spanish diplomats Afiuni trial. The hearing has been set for next Thursday, August 31.
Diplomatic sources reported that the Government has not yet taken a decision. Parliamentary resolutions of this kind are not mandatory, but is obliged to take them into consideration and report to the House of what has been done about it. The deadline to report is six months, but in this case the decision must be made before Thursday.
During the parliamentary session, the senator Dionisio Garcia Carnero PP publicly denounced the judge Afiuni had suffered systematic torture and rape during his stay in prison. Garcia Carneiro said the judge left the prison to be operated from serious injuries caused by violations and abuses at the prison.
Diplomatic sources said yesterday that this release, which they attributed to Chavez opposition groups present in Spain, is completely distorted, that there have been no such atrocities and that the judge was subjected to an intervention by a cancer box. All opposition parties of the center-right in Spain are often interested in Parliament for the judge Afiuni, addition of PP and the PNV Basque nationalists in the Senate, the Government has also been questioned by the Catalan nationalist CiU in Congress.
The Spanish Government's position in this regard has always been to promote a discreet relationship with the government of Hugo Chávez, no public statements on internal affairs of Venezuela that will damage relations and may lead to a cut in the dialogue. The Government accuses the PP of using Venezuela politically. 
This point was not confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Maria Lourdes Afiuni was arrested in December 2009 accused of corruption and helping to flee to a businessman who was released on parole after three years in prison awaiting trial. President Hugo Chavez called for his arrest and called for a severe sentence for her.
The case has been reported Afiuni specifically for organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as a human rights violation because it is allegedly a victim of a political process led by President Hugo Chávez. In early February, Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni released from prison to be submitted to an operation in a cancer hospital and later passed to enforce the custody arrested at her home.
The conditions for this change was the ban on speaking to international media. By then, the situation of Afiuni had been denounced by international organizations as the closest thing that can be found in Venezuela, a political prisoner. The last time the Spanish government had ruled on this case was the November 30, 2010.
Questioned about it by Senator Iñaki Anasagasti NIP, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trinidad Jimenez, said in the Spanish Senate that would follow up "concrete" in this case. The senator asked to send foreign diplomats to visit the judge at the prison, something that the minister Jimenez refused to commit in public.
Likewise, last Thursday the Ibero-American Affairs Committee of the Senate, chaired by himself Anasagasti, adopted by a large majority and the sole vote against the PSOE a motion urging the government to send observers to Spanish diplomats Afiuni trial. The hearing has been set for next Thursday, August 31.
Diplomatic sources reported that the Government has not yet taken a decision. Parliamentary resolutions of this kind are not mandatory, but is obliged to take them into consideration and report to the House of what has been done about it. The deadline to report is six months, but in this case the decision must be made before Thursday.
During the parliamentary session, the senator Dionisio Garcia Carnero PP publicly denounced the judge Afiuni had suffered systematic torture and rape during his stay in prison. Garcia Carneiro said the judge left the prison to be operated from serious injuries caused by violations and abuses at the prison.
Diplomatic sources said yesterday that this release, which they attributed to Chavez opposition groups present in Spain, is completely distorted, that there have been no such atrocities and that the judge was subjected to an intervention by a cancer box. All opposition parties of the center-right in Spain are often interested in Parliament for the judge Afiuni, addition of PP and the PNV Basque nationalists in the Senate, the Government has also been questioned by the Catalan nationalist CiU in Congress.
The Spanish Government's position in this regard has always been to promote a discreet relationship with the government of Hugo Chávez, no public statements on internal affairs of Venezuela that will damage relations and may lead to a cut in the dialogue. The Government accuses the PP of using Venezuela politically.
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