MIAMI - Capping a series of events straight out of a telenovela, the mistress of former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez agreed Wednesday to honor his estranged wife's wishes and allow his body to be buried in his homeland.
Dispute over ex-president's body ends: He'll be buried in Venezuela
December 30, 2010 at 1:25AM
Perez's longtime partner, Cecilia Matos, and the couple's two adult daughters had planned to bury him in Florida after a memorial mass Wednesday.
But less than 24 hours before the ceremony, lawyers for Blanca Rodriguez de Perez, the estranged wife, went to court and convinced a Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge to issue an order stopping it.
One of Perez's daughters with Matos, Maria Francia Perez, said that his body would remain at a funeral home until it could be sent back to Venezuela. She was not sure when that would happen.
Rodriguez maintained that she had the right to decide what happened to Perez's body because, although the two were separated, they never legally divorced. She also claimed Perez left no written instructions regarding his remains.
Their daughter, Carolina Perez, told a reporter in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital: "They're still married, and the law is very clear in Venezuela and in the United States: When the person dies, the one who has the right to reclaim the body is the spouse, and we exercised that right."
Matos, once Perez's secretary, was frequently identified as his wife. It is not clear if they ever married.
The revelations regarding Perez's personal life surprised many in Venezuela as they prepared to say goodbye to their former president, who died at 88 on Saturday in Miami.
His family in the United States had said that Perez did not want to be buried in Venezuela until President Hugo Chavez, who led a failed 1992 coup against Perez, left office. Perez's family in Venezuela wants him buried next to his daughter Thais, who died 15 years ago.
Perez, who served from 1974 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1993, was impeached during his second term for misusing public funds and spent two years under house arrest.
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