Speaking from her home in Caracas, where she is resting due to a bout of high blood pressure, Alicia Rivero said Friday that it was due to that alleged "pressure" that on she signed an order the day before prohibiting Zuloaga from leaving the country and requiring him to appear regularly in court. She told local media that she fears for her life and accused the president of the Caracas judicial circuit, Veneci Blanco, of pressuring her into making certain rulings, not only in the Zuloaga case but in two others involving government officials and former officials. "I signed (the precautionary measures) due to her (Blanco's) harassment," Rivera told reporters, adding that she would recuse herself from the case. She said she did not know if she had been removed as head of Caracas' 13th Court, as media reports have indicated.

Prosecutors said Wednesday night that a judge had barred Zuloaga from leaving the country and ordered him to appear periodically in court. That exit ban also applies to Zuloaga's son, Guillermo Zuloaga Siso; and two other business leaders, all of whom are charged with usury in connection with the confiscation in May of more than a score of new vehicles on Zuloaga Nunez' property.

Globovision has been slapped with fines totaling some $4.2 million and five administrative sanctions, two of which could lead to the revocation of its license before it expires in 2015. The station is accused -- among other things -- of using the public airwaves to facilitate criminal acts in connection with statements made by a guest, who said during a broadcast that Chavez should be careful or he could end up "being hanged" like Benito Mussolini.

Chavez, who was briefly ousted in a 2002 coup, regularly accuses opponents of seeking to depose or kill him.

Manuel Rosales, a prominent opposition politician charged with illegal enrichment, fled the country and was granted political asylum in Peru, while a former close ally of Chav