President Lusinchi filed for divorce while still in office, "citing voluntary abandonment of the home" by Castillo. First Lady Castillo criticized her husband's actions and refused to move out of the presidential palace during the divorce proceedings. The divorce, initiated by Lusinchi, was granted in April 1988 by the Seventh Civil Court of Caracas with unusual speed. Castillo rebuked Lusinchi following the ruling, saying, "If anyone has committed abandonment and serious insults, it has not been me."
