P.J.'s Day in Court

Some chanted: "Viva el General! Viva el General!" Others cried: "Thief! Assassin! Son of a whore!" As police held back the crowd of 3,000, the armored van carrying Marcos Perez Jimenez, 50, from his jail cell pulled up in front of Caracas' Supreme Court building. It had been more than seven years since the pudgy strongman was overthrown, and last week, after well-heeled exile in the U.S. and 19 not-too-austere months in Venezuelan prisons, Perez Jimenez was finally being brought to trial.

The charges against him do not include such political crimes as jailing and torturing his opponents. Because of the niceties of political asylum, the U.S. agreed to extradite P.J. to Venezuela only if he were to be tried on standard criminal charges. Even so, the indictment was hardly standard. His offense, according to the state, was to have "misused" $13 million in government funds.

Perez Jimenez seemed as buoyant as ever and just as fat. In Venezuelan jails he has regained the 50 lbs. that he lost in a Miami cell during the extradition proceedings. In the small courtroom, he chatted jocularly with the old cronies and reporters who swarmed around him. Even after the 15 justices had taken their places and the prosecuting attorney started droning through the 417-page indictment, P.J. continued to whisper to newsmen, who had not been allowed to interview him since his return. Among other courtroom comments, some of which were broadcast live on nationwide TV, the unchastened ex-dictator declared with heavy sarcasm: "I am most satisfied with this democratic regime that affords so many guarantees such as getting killed in the streets, personal and collective insecurity, sacking the nation's treasury, and mortgaging the country."

The trial will probably last for months. President Raul Leoni is committed to making certain that all legalities are observed, and P.J.'s lawyers are planning an elaborate defense based on the argument that, since Congress authorized all appropriations and supervised the spending during P.J.'s regime, their client cannot be held responsible for the missing millions. In a way, Perez Jimenez would make good his oft-repeated pledge: "Venezuela has not heard the last of P.J."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.