This week a Venezuelan judge indicted opposition leader María Corina Machado on flimsy charges of conspiracy to kill President Nicolás Maduro. If found guilty, she could spend up to 16 years in prison. Can she expect a fair trial from the Venezuelan judiciary?

Not at all, according to the findings of an investigation led by three Venezuelan lawyers and published in a new book, El TSJ al Servicio de la Revolución (“The Supreme Court at the Service of the Revolution”). According to their research, since 2005 Venezuela’s justice system has issued 45,474 sentences, but not once has it ruled against the government.

Machado’s fate thus depends entirely on the whims of Maduro and his entourage. The precedent of Leopoldo López, another opposition leader who has been jailed since February on charges of arson and conspiracy, does not bode well for Machado.