madam president the sheer demagoguery of venezuela's president hugo chávez seems to know no bounds
he has now targeted the independence of the judiciary as a next obstacle to his assumption of absolute power
the arrest and imprisonment of judge maría lourdes afiuni mora represents his most audacious and brazen attempt yet to silence dissent and undermine separation of powers and the rule of law
how this judge can hope for a fair trial is beyond me
chávez has already labelled her a bandit accused her of taking a bribe and said she should be jailed for thirty years
he has also said that simón bolívar would have had her shot an extremely inflammatory statement in chávez's increasingly dictatorial regime and in my view a reckless incitement to violence
yet chávez gets away with this behaviour largely because he remains a hysterical critic of the united states and as such is popular with many on the left in europe and in this house
this paradox continues to undermine the eu's collective efforts to expose the alarming trend towards totalitarianism in venezuela
