Entered into the database on Friday, July 08th, 2005 @ 01:03:45 MST
A Venezuelan opposition figure who was received by US President George
Bush is to go on trial with three colleagues, accused of conspiring to change
the government using US funds. Judge Norma Sandoval ruled on Thursday that Maria Corina Machado and three
other members of her Sumate group - which helped organise a referendum against
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez nearly a year ago - are being charged with
"conspiracy to change Venezuela's republican system". The accused say Chavez's government has trumped up the charges against them
in an attempt to intimidate critics who say his rule is becoming increasingly
authoritarian. Traitor accusation Chavez has called Machado a traitor after her Sumate group received funding
from the US Congress. The president won the August recall referendum organised by Sumate, which said
the vote was plagued by irregularities and held under conditions that favoured
the president. The judge ruled that Machado, Alejandro Plaz, Luis Enrique Palacios and Ricardo
Estevez should be tried in court but did not set a date. She said they could
remain at liberty until the trial took place. "For us in Sumate, it's very clear this persecution is intended to intimidate
us," Machado said. One of Venezuela's best-known opposition figures, Machado met Bush at the White
House on 31 May. The heavily publicised meeting further strained already tense
ties between Venezuela and its biggest energy client, the United States. US officials praise Machado as a pro-democracy campaigner. She is the only
Venezuelan political figure whom Bush as formally received. US funding Venezuela's government said the meeting showed Sumate was an "agency"
of the Bush administration, which Chavez accuses of plotting to topple or kill
him. Sumate says it received a $31,000 grant from the National Endowment
for Democracy, a US group that is allocated funds by the US Congress to promote
democracy worldwide. Sumate leaders say they used the funds to organise courses for voters
about their electoral rights. Chavez says the National Endowment for Democracy is a front for the
CIA, spearheading US efforts to end his rule over the world's fifth largest
oil exporter. The US government and leaders of the National Endowment for Democracy deny
his accusation. Machado and Plaz said on Thursday they would continue to campaign for transparency
in upcoming local parish elections scheduled for early next month.
Chavez has many detractors