CARACAS - A Venezuelan statesman and possible challenger to Hugo Chavez's presidential re-election bid was convicted of publicly saying the country has turned into a drug-trafficking center, in what human-rights groups say is a government tactic to silence its foes through the country's judiciary.

Oswaldo Alvarez Paz, 68 years old, was convicted of spreading false information because he said last year on a television program that Venezuela "facilitates the business of drug trafficking."

Mr. Alvarez Paz, a Christian Democrat, was for many years one of the country's most prominent politicians, and served as governor of economic powerhouse Zulia state as well as president of the nation's lower house of congress.

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