Maria Lourdes Afiuni

1. Instituto Nacional de Orientación Femenina
   Dates unknown

María Lourdes Afiuni Mora (born 8 June 1963) is a Venezuelan judge. She was head of the 31st Control Court of Caracas before she was arrested in 2009 on charges of corruption after ordering the conditional release on bail of businessman Eligio Cedeño, who then fled the country. She was moved to house arrest in Caracas in February 2011, and granted parole in June 2013, but she is still barred from practicing law, leaving the country, or using her bank account or social networks. Human rights groups accused the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez of creating a climate of fear that threatens the independence of the judiciary. Reuters said Afiuni is "considered by opponents and jurists as one of the most emblematic political prisoners" in Venezuela, because Chávez called for her to be imprisoned. In March 2019, she was sentenced to 5 years in prison. She was sentenced for corruption, although no alleged amounts involved were specified; the actual sentence was for "spiritual corruption". In July 2019, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, announced that the Venezuelan government had released Afiuni, along with journalist Braulio Jatar and 20 detained students. Afiuni's brother and Jatar denounced that they had not received an official statement from Venezuelan judiciary. Afiuni's detention is considered as a landmark case of the erosion of judicial independence during the Bolivarian Revolution.