BRV APPOINTS DISMISSED JUDGES TO DIPLOMATIC POSTS

C O N F I D E N T I A L CARACAS 002215 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/20/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL VE SUBJECT: BRV APPOINTS DISMISSED JUDGES TO DIPLOMATIC POSTS Classified By: Daniel Lawton, Acting Political Counselor, for Reason 1.4(d) ¶1. (SBU) The Foreign Ministry of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (BRV) appointed three dismissed appellate court judges to diplomatic posts in Europe and Latin America in late October. Judge Belkis Cedeno is the new consul general to Vigo, Spain. Judge Maikel Moreno is the new commercial attachQ in Rome and Ivan Dario Bastardo will be an attach without portfolio at the Venezuelan embassy in Buenos Aires. All three jurists were implicated in the trial fixing ring known as "Los Enanos", or the dwarves. ¶2. (SBU) The "Los Enanos" corruption network became public knowledge when Supreme Court magistrate Luis Velazquez Alvaray came under investigation in 2006 by a national ethics council after falling out of President Chavez' favor. Alvaray fought back by exposing a trial fixing ring and naming Cedeno, Moreno and Bastardo, among others, as members. ¶3. (SBU) Judge Cedeno was chief judge of the appellate court. In August 2006, the Commission for the Function and Restructuring of the Judicial System dismissed Cedeno for abuse of power. As a defense attorney, Judge Moreno had a history of defending notorious clients, including the "Pistoleros de Llaguno", a group of Chavez supporters who fired into an anti-Chavez crowd during the April 2002 interregnum. While on the bench, Moreno was recorded soliciting Judge Ivan Dario Bastardo to free a known drug trafficker. Both Moreno and Bastardo were dismissed in June ¶2007. ¶4. (C) A lawyer familiar with the cases told PolOff that the group involved in trial fixing remains active. She opined that these diplomatic postings are compensation for being sacrificed to protect other members of "Los Enanos". DUDDY