BARQUISIMETO, Venezuela - Melania Perozo, a rosary around her neck, a portrait of her son, Dario Pastor Estrada, in her hands, walked through the crowd to the statueof the Virgin of La Divina Pastora - Mary, the Divine Shepherdess.
My cell is painted green, the same colour we once used in the newsroom. Two benches and a table are bolted to the floor. Nothing moves. The bed is narrow, but I haven't fallen out yet. When I was free, but already expecting arrest, I used to joke that prison would give me the time I always lacked finally, I could read.
Variously described as an architect, painter, novelist, communist and convicted fraudster, Fernand Pouillon's life was punctuated by abrupt reversals of fortune that might have sprung from the pages of Dickens or Dumas. Throughout an eventful career, he ricocheted from intoxicating success, to financial scandal, prison, exile and eventual rehabilitation. In 1985, when Pouillon was in his early 70s, he was awarded the Legion d'Honneur by President Francois Mitterrand. Yet just over 20 years earlier, Pouillon found himself in custody awaiting trial on charges of corruption.
"When I got close to my neighbourhood in Kihoto estate, some police officers found me and arrested me along with others. They were picking anybody they saw off the streets and arresting them."
