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Venezuela's Defiant Chief Prosecutor Requests Protection

by Associated Press

   CARACAS --

   Venezuela's chief prosecutor asked the Inter-American Commission on
   Human Rights for protection Friday, days after the Supreme Court barred
   her from leaving the country and ordered her bank accounts frozen.

   Tensions between Luisa Ortega Diaz and President Nicolas Maduro's
   administration have been steadily escalating since she contested a
   Supreme Court decision in late March that dissolved the
   opposition-controlled National Assembly and sparked a deadly wave of
   unrest.

   Since then, she has become one of the few critical voices within the
   government -- other than the sidelined congress -- challenging Maduro's
   push to rewrite the constitution and pressing charges against officers
   responsible for protest deaths.

   The government-stacked Supreme Court has rejected her motions
   challenging the constitutional rewrite and has advanced a complaint
   filed against her by a socialist party lawmaker.

   Request for protection

   The court this week also ruled that a number of responsibilities long
   the exclusive jurisdiction of the state prosecutor's office would
   instead be assigned to the pro-government public ombudsman's office.

   "This is yet another step against the democratic institutions and
   autonomy of the Venezuelan public prosecutor," said Diego Garcia Sayan,
   the United Nation's special rapporteur on the independence of judges
   and lawyers.

   Ortega Diaz announced on Twitter she was seeking the IACHR's protection
   for all workers at the state prosecutor's office, but provided no
   further details.
   In recent weeks, Maduro and his allies have stepped up their criticism
   of the prosecutor.
   Diosdado Cabello, the head of Venezuela's socialist party, recently
   called her the "traitor prosecutor." Pedro Carreno, the lawmaker who
   filed a complaint accusing her of taking on the role of a de fact
   opposition leader, has asked the court to evaluate her "mental
   insanity."

   Relatives threatened, harassed
   Ortega Diaz has reported that relatives have been threatened and
   harassed.

   The Washington-based IACHR is tasked with safeguarding human rights
   across the hemisphere. The organization did not immediately respond to
   a request for comment.

   Three months of political upheaval in Venezuela triggered by the March
   Supreme Court decision have left at least 77 people dead, hundreds
   injured and thousands detained. On Friday, opposition leaders denounced
   the detention of more than a dozen student protesters who were loaded
   into the back of a truck as tear gas launched nearby drifted into the
   vehicle and the doors were closed.

   Students detained

   Student leader Daniel Ascanio said 29 students were detained Thursday
   for participating in the protests. It was unclear what charges if any
   they are facing, though Ascanio said some had been able to speak with
   relatives and appeared "physically well."

   "We are living at a time when the national government detains youths
   just for expressing our desire for a different country," he said.
   Demonstrators are demanding new elections, but Maduro has vowed instead
   to resolve the crisis by convoking a special assembly to rewrite the
   constitution. The election is slated to take place in late July though
   polls indicate it has little public support.