Bárbara Gabriela César Siero, former vice president of the Political-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) of Venezuela, reported this Wednesday in a video that the chavista regime arbitrarily detained two of her brothers and her sister-in-law — all three Army officers — to coerce her into signing the political disqualification of María Corina Machado and other opposition leaders.
According to the account of the former magistrate, the arrest took place on December 15, 2023, the same day that Machado submitted her appeal to the TSJ to review her disqualification, in the context of the Barbados Agreement. On that day, officials from the Military Counterintelligence General Directorate (DGCIM) took Lieutenant Colonel Guillermo Enrique César Siero, Major Guillermo Henry César Siero, and Major Diana Desirée Victoria Justo.
"On Friday, December 15, 2023, after the deadline for filing lawsuits had passed, citizen María Corina Machado was the last to file her lawsuit. Concurrently on the same day, my brothers were arbitrarily detained by officials of the DGCIM," César Siero recounted in the video titled Captives of Power.
Seven days later, while her family members remained missing, the assistant lawyer to the president of the Administrative Chamber—who was her own daughter—unexpectedly appeared to demand that she sign the decisions without following the regular procedures.
"With my brothers and my sister-in-law missing, fearing for their lives, as well as those of my other family members and my own, I proceeded to sign them," she declared.
Among the documents he signed under pressure are the disqualifications of Machado, Henrique Capriles Radosky, Rosa Brandonicio Descarano and Pablo Pérez Álvarez.
In January 2024, when then-President Nicolás Maduro reported to the National Assembly new alleged conspiracy plots to assassinate him, César Siero was forced to sign the disqualification rulings once again. Shortly thereafter, she was compelled to leave her position. "They told me that if I didn't resign, things would get worse for me," she revealed.
The former magistrate was quietly removed from her position without being able to secure her retirement, and her vacancy was never formally notified to the National Assembly.
"The lives of my family members were used to force me to sign key decisions that affected the democratic direction of the country," stated César Siero, who also noted that "in Venezuela, there is no autonomy or independence of the judiciary or due process."
The complaint was made days after the Brazalete Blanco case reached its judicial resolution: on October 1, human rights defender Rocío San Miguel was acquitted of all charges after approximately 700 days in detention. However, during the same proceedings, the family members of César Siero were convicted: General Guillermo Enrique César Siero received a 12-year prison sentence, while his brother and sister-in-law were each sentenced to three years. It was precisely this conviction that prompted the former magistrate to break her silence.
The disqualification of Machado, reaffirmed by the TSJ in January 2024, prevented her from running in the presidential elections on July 28 of that year, which is why the opposition nominated Edmundo González Urrutia in her place.
César Siero requested protection for her and her family from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Human Rights Watch.
The complaint comes at a politically sensitive time: the dialogue process between chavismo and the opposition, initiated in August, includes the renewal of all magistrates of the TSJ, scheduled for November, although the members of the committee responsible for selecting the next members of Venezuela's highest court have not yet been appointed.
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