CARACAS, Venezuela -- (AP) -- A judge has ordered the detention of former Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez and his wife, Cecilia Matos, while a court considers charges that they illegally enriched themselves while Pérez was in office more than eight years ago.

 Pérez, who has a home in the Dominican Republic, said from Santo Domingo that Judge Mario Popoli's order Thursday ``has no meaning whatsoever'' and again denied the charges. But he said he would return to Venezuela if required. ``I won't turn my back on any responsibility of mine,'' he said.

 The attorney general's office is investigating whether it can submit extradition requests for the couple to the Dominican government and to the United States, where the 79-year-old Pérez has another home.

 Popoli said that if Pérez is returned to Venezuela, he would be placed under house arrest. Pérez is a strident critic of President Hugo Chávez, who tried to overthrow Pérez in a failed military coup in 1992.

 Prosecutors accuse Pérez and Matos of failing to disclose five joint bank accounts in New York City. A 1993 congressional investigation showed that the accounts held between $50,000 and $900,000. Venezuelan law requires public officials to disclose their assets upon entering and leaving office.

 Pérez and Matos were married after Pérez left office in 1993, when he was impeached by the Supreme Court for other corruption charges. Matos was Pérez's personal secretary during his five-year presidency.

 In 1999, a court suspended the investigation against Pérez because he was elected senator, which gave him parliamentary immunity. Pérez lost that immunity after new 1999 constitution mandated that a new parliament be elected.

 Pérez was president between 1974 and 1979 and was re-elected in 1989. In 1996, the he was convicted of misuse of public funds and sentenced to two years in house arrest.

                                    © 2001