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From Pravda:
Four members of the Sumate group, the US-funded organization that fuelled a referendum to oust Venezuela President Chavez last year, will be tried in Venezuela accused of conspiring to change country"s republican system. Among them is a well known opposition figure, Maria Corina Machado, who had visited US President George W. Bush at the White House on 31 May.
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.
The accused denied accusations and said Chavez's government has trumped up the charges against them in an attempt to intimidate critics who say his rule is becoming increasingly authoritarian. US officials praise Machado as a pro-democracy campaigner. She is the only Venezuelan political figure whom Bush has formally received.
Maria Corina Machado is the Founder and Managing Director of Asociación Civil Súmate, an association that defends citizen’s political rights, one of the largest and most important of its kind in Venezuela. Previously she founded and directed the Fundación Oporttunitas, which funds and provides management support to numerous social development programmes. This foundation became the local partner of the International Youth Foundation in Venezuela. Before that she was the Founder and Executive Director of Fundación Atenea, a foundation that cares for homeless youth and was the first private foundation in Venezuela to establish an agreement with the Government to privately manage public centres in this sector. She has also served as a member of the Board of Directors of Sivensa, and of the Venezuelan chapter of the International Women’s Forum. She holds an Industrial Engineering degree from the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, and obtained a specialization in Finance from the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración.
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