Miami Judge To Decide Venezuelan President's Final Resting Place
MIAMI (CBS4) – Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Arthur Rothenberg said Monday he may order former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez's body moved to an above-ground crypt to allow more time to settle the feud between his estranged wife and longtime mistress over his final resting place.
"The body would be laid to rest with dignity until all of these issues are heard," Rothenberg said.
Attorneys for Perez's mistress, Cecilia Matos, said they would agree. But lawyers for wife Blanca Rodriguez de Perez raised concerns that once the body is interred in Miami, she may lose her claim seeking to have Perez buried in Venezuela. He was president from 1974-79 and 1989-93.
Rothenberg said he would decide on a temporary burial after reviewing the law.
Rodriguez de Perez, who did not attend Monday's hearing, contends that under Florida law she has sole authority over the disposition of her husband's remains because he left no written instructions. She took legal action to halt a planned Dec. 29 burial in Miami.
Perez, 88, who lead Venezuela from 1974-79 and 1989-93, died Dec. 25 in Miami after suffering a heart attack.
Matos, Perez's long time mistress, and the couple's two daughters say he wanted to be buried in South Florida because of his opposition to current President Hugo Chavez.
Perez, labeled by some as a maverick politician who was impeached in May 1993 on allegations of embezzlement and misuse of public funds, called for violence against Chavez in 2004 and suggested that the South American nation would benefit from a dictatorship, according to a 2004 report in El Nacional, one of Venezuela's main daily newspapers.
While Perez denied being involved in a plot to assassinate Chavez, he did say Chaves "must die like a dog, because he deserves it," according to a report in venezuelanalysis.com.
But Rodriguez, Perez's estranged wife, maintains that her husband wanted a Venezuelan burial, and because they were never divorced she has legal rights in the matter.
Matos' attorneys say Perez's decision a year before his death to purchase two Miami burial plots is clear evidence of his intentions.
The hearing is expected to continue at least into Tuesday. Rothenberg did not say when he would decide, but said if the matter remained unsettled after this week it would be March or April before he could return to it.
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