Ex-leader won’t return to Venezuela, wife says

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The wife of former Venezuelan leader Carlos Andres Perez ridiculed an attempt to extradite her husband from the United States, saying Friday that President Hugo Chavez is attempting to create a spectacle for political ends.

Cecilia Matos said in a telephone interview from Miami that the 87-year-old former president will not return to Venezuela to be tried on charges stemming from violence during 1989 protests.

She told The Associated Press that Chavez “wants a circus, and we aren’t going to be the clowns in that circus.”

In a ruling on Thursday, Venezuela’s Supreme Court cleared the way for Chavez’s government to request Perez’s extradition.