The judge, Norma Sandoval, ruled that the leader, María Corina Machado, 37, and three other members of a group called Súmate, face trials for having used $31,000 from the United States government in an effort to remove President Hugo Chávez. Judge Sandoval did not set a trial date.

Mr. Chávez, whose populist government is sharply at odds with the Bush administration, accuses Washington of using the National Endowment for Democracy to funnel money to antigovernment groups, including Súmate, which helped organize a recall referendum that failed to end Mr. Chávez's term last August.

Records of the endowment show that it spent $2.2 million from 2000 to 2003 on programs that backed political parties and other organizations, many strong Chávez opponents.

Ms. Machado, though, said in a telephone interview from Caracas that Venezuela had no law that expressly forbids foreign financing of groups like hers. The $31,000 her organization received, she said, was used to run 24 workshops that last year educated Venezuelans about the electoral process, the Constitution and other legal issues.

In May, Ms. Machadao had a meeting with President Bush that strained relations with Caracas. Her supporters say she is being singled out for helping push for the referendum and criticism of Mr. Chávez.

Her lawyers say Ms. Machado and the other Súmate members ordered to stand trial -Ricardo Estévez, Luis Enrique Palacios and Alejandro Plaz - have not been allowed to introduce defense evidence in pretrial hearings like testimony from workshop attendees.

In Washington, the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States, Bernardo Álvarez, said the judicial system functioned independently of the government. "This is a case that's public and transparent," he said. "All the arguments, especially hers, have been out there for public consumption."