Chavez gunmen kill policeman wound five more at funeral

yahoo.com ^ | February 23, 2003 | STEPHEN IXER, AP

[Cincinatus' Wife]

CARACAS, Venezuela - A leading opponent of President Hugo Chavez who helped command a two-month national strike was ordered held under house arrest Sunday.

Also, Caracas police said Sunday that pro-Chavez gunmen killed one police officer and wounded five others who had attended a colleague's funeral nearby. Tensions have been high between Chavez's administration and police.

A judge placed under house arrest strike co-leader Carlos Fernandez, president of the Fedecamaras business chamber. Fernandez was seized Wednesday at gunpoint by secret police on charges including treason, rebellion and inciting criminal acts.

The judge struck down three of the charges, including treason, in a 13-hour hearing that ended early Sunday. The rebellion and incitement charges were upheld, said Pedro Berrizbeitia, one of Fernandez's lawyers.

Secret police rushed Fernandez, 52, out of the courthouse to be taken to his home in Valencia, 66 miles (110 kilometers) west of Caracas.

Strike co-leader Carlos Ortega remained in hiding after a warrant for his arrest was issued. As president of the Venezuelan Workers Confederation, he and Fernandez spearheaded the work stoppage that paralyzed the vital oil industry and devastated the economy.

Chavez has demanded 20-year jail sentences for Fernandez and Ortega, alleging they sabotaged oil installations, incited civil disobedience and trampled Venezuelans' human rights.

The two-month strike, which ended Feb. 4 in all sectors but the oil industry, caused food and gasoline shortages nationwide and cost Venezuela over $4 billion.

Lawyers said Fernandez's detention was riddled with irregularities - including his right to a preliminary hearing within 48 hours of his arrest.

The arrest was ordered by a judge who had acted as defense attorney for Chavez supporters accused of shooting at opposition marchers before an April coup that briefly toppled Chavez.

The Organization of American States, the United Nations and the Carter Center, run by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, have sponsored three months of talks to seek an electoral solution to Venezuela's crisis. The future of those talks was in doubt after Fernandez's arrest.

Venezuela's opposition wants early elections and staged the national strike to back its demand. It collected more than 4 million signatures demanding an early vote. The government dismisses the petition drive and accuses the opposition of "coup-plotting."

Chavez is a former paratrooper who was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000 to a six-year term. He vows to distribute Venezuela's oil riches to the poor. Critics accuse him of imposing an authoritarian state and driving the economy into the ground.

Late Saturday, Chavez supporters allegedly ambushed officers who had attended the funeral of a colleague killed while investigating a crime, police said. The officers were near the headquarters of the state oil monopoly, which has been staked out by Chavez supporters, some armed, since the strike began in December.

One motorcycle officer was killed and five wounded, said Miguel Pinto, chief of the police department's motorcycle brigade. There were no arrests. Government officials declined to comment.

After a series of attacks on police by pro-Chavez gunmen, Police Chief Henry Vivas had ordered officers to stay away from the oil company headquarters to avoid clashes with Chavez supporters. But the funeral home is located only several blocks away.

"We never thought it would come to this," Pinto said.

Chavez's government had seized thousands of weapons from city police on the pretext that Vivas had lost control of the 9,000-member department. The government cited a labor dispute involving just 40 officers, all Chavez supporters.

Critics allege Chavez is disarming police while secretly arming pro-government radicals. Chavez's supporters deny the charge. Crime has increased since Chavez began restricting police patrols in November.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

Military seizes heavy arms from Caracas police-Officers left with pistols as Chávez tightens control ***The intense rivalry between Chávez and the Metropolitan Police began shortly after the president's 1998 election, when he began making changes to consolidate his power. Through a constituent assembly's new constitution, Chávez abolished Congress, creating a single-chamber legislature that he controlled. But before that new assembly got to work, an interim Congress appointed a new public prosecutor, comptroller, Supreme Court, and elections council, which until then had functioned as independent powers. ''When all you want is one political party, one newspaper, one radio station, and control over police and banks,'' Peña said, ``you are instituting a totalitarian regime.''**

[Dog Gone]

If ever a country needed a coup, it is Venezuela. Too bad they lost their nerve last April.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Soldiers and woman who opposed Chavez found bound and shot in Venezuela town*** CARACAS, Venezuela -- The bodies of three soldiers who had called for "civic disobedience" against President Hugo Chavez's government have been found with their hands tied and faces wrapped with tape, forensic police said Tuesday

No arrests had been made, and authorities were trying to determine a motive behind the killings of the three soldiers: Erwin Arguello, Angel Salas and Felix Pinto. The bodies were found in Guarenas, 18 miles from Caracas, said Cesar Hernandez, chief of the forensic police's homicide division. Two of the bodies were found with multiple bullet wounds, Hernandez said, refusing to explain further. He said autopsies on the three bodies were pending.***

Anti-Chavez student tortured by police, says head of Venezuela's central university [Full Text] CARACAS, Venezuela - Secret police tortured a university student who participated in a youth protest against President Hugo Chavez, the rector of the Central University of Venezuela alleged Thursday. A high-ranking official of the Interior Ministry, which oversees the federal secret police, denied the claim. The official spoke only on condition of anonymity.

University Rector Giuseppe Gianetto told Union Radio that 18-year-old Ricardo Sanchez, an international studies major, was kidnapped by agents as he left an opposition youth protest in Caracas on Wednesday. Sanchez was blindfolded, beaten and burned with an object before agents released him early Thursday in a Caracas slum, Gianetto said. Sanchez was under the protective custody of university attorneys who were filing a complaint with the attorney general's office.

"This kind of vile and cowardly torture hasn't been seen in this country for a long time," said Gianetto. "Not even youths can use their constitutional rights to go out and protest peacefully."

"There wasn't any detention of any student," the Interior Ministry official said in a telephone interview.[End]

[Antoninus]

Well, it appears that Chavez has won. Every day that the opposition dilly-dallies, is one day closer to their ruin. By the time that August referendum comes around, Chavez will have them so scared and the system so rigged, that he'll win by a land-slide. I predict he'll "get" 80% of the vote or more. Thank you Jimmy Carter. Very sad.

Our Lady of the Americas, pray for Venezuela!

[joesnuffy]

We get oil from Venny its time to intervene and replace that commie dink

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[WOSG]

Thank you Jimmy Carter.

my God, you'd think an ex-President couldnt be this dangerous.... sad.

[WOSG]

Thank you Jimmy Carter.

my God, you'd think an ex-President couldnt be this dangerous.... sad.

[NormsRevenge]

It just gets uglier and uglier.

When will the military leaders rebel against the hounds from hell that hold power?

It is their own countrymen that they kill in the streets.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

"We never thought it would come to this," Pinto said.

Ah, the eternal cry. We didn't know it could get this bad.

It will, it does, it has.

I fear their chance has come and gone. Because they wanted to deal in a "civilized" way with an uncivilized enemy. Let this serve as a lesson to the rest of the world. When you are in a situation such as Venezuela was last April, finish it. The world will howl. But they don’t have to live with the consequences of your inaction. You will. And so will your family and neighbors.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

I wonder when their going to tell us about the diplomatic influx of Al-Qeada and Iraqi's into the country because the mainstrean sure isnt doingl

Its 2 hour flight from Venesuala to florida and from what ive heard the iraqi's have been going there since before 911. but i cant find anything on it with any substance .

[livius]

Because they wanted to deal in a "civilized" way with an uncivilized enemy...

It should indeed serve as a lesson. Nothing favors the growth of the dictatorial virus more a delay in "treatment." Chavez should have gotten the treatment last April.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Fidel, Saddam and Hugo --An improbable but growing friendship of three military revolutionaries

Fidel Castro's Deadly Secret - Five BioChem Warfare Labs

Cuba forced to sell biotechnology to Iran

What is really happening in Venezuela

More Facts Uncovered in Chavez - Al Qaeda Collaboration

FARC Bomb targeted for Uribe kills 16 in Colombia - IRA and ETA training

Bogota car bombing linked to Irish, Basque rebels - 32 dead

IRA woman was 'envoy' to Cuba [Attention US Supporters of IRA]

Terrorists active in U.S. 'backyard': Latin America hotbed for both al-Qaida, Hezbollah

[Travis McGee]

Too late for a coup. It will be a civil war, or totalitarianism. No other options exist.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

A Terrorist Regime Waits in the Wings

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gestures as if praying during a television appearance from the Presidential Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2002. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

President of the Fedecamaras Business Chamber Carlos Fernandez, top right, is escorted out of a courtroom in Caracas, Venezuela, in the early hours of Sunday, Feb. 23, 2002. Fernandez, a leading opponent of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who helped lead a two-month national strike was put under house arrest Sunday after a judge struck down a treason charge but left standing two other serious counts during a 13-hour closed-door hearing. (AP Photo/Pedro Rey, Notitarde)

[Travis McGee]

Chavez is now going the "dirty war" route, but I think it will lead to a general civil war.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I think Chavez wants to "get it on."

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Venezuela Strike Leader Gets House Arrest ***Separately, gunmen loyal to Chavez ambushed a group of policemen overnight, killing one officer and wounding five others, said Miguel Pinto, chief of the police motorcycle brigade.

The officers were attacked Saturday night as they returned from the funeral for a slain colleague and passed near the headquarters of the state oil monopoly, which has been staked out by Chavez supporters since December.

After a series of attacks on Caracas police by pro-Chavez gunmen, Police Chief Henry Vivas ordered officers to avoid oil company headquarters. But the funeral home is located nearby.

"We never thought it would come to this," Pinto said.

Chavez's government has seized thousands of weapons from city police on the pretext that Vivas has lost control of the 9,000-member department. Critics allege Chavez is disarming police while secretly arming pro-government radicals.

After Fernandez's overnight court hearing, uniformed federal agents rushed the business leader to his home in Valencia, 66 miles west of Caracas.

A visibly tired Fernandez, 52, told Globovision television he was happy to be back with his family. "They treated me very well, they respected all my rights," he said.

Strike co-leader Carlos Ortega remained in hiding after a warrant for his arrest was issued. As president of the Venezuelan Workers Confederation, he and Fernandez spearheaded the work stoppage that paralyzed the vital oil industry and devastated the economy.

Chavez has demanded 20-year jail sentences for Fernandez and Ortega, alleging they sabotaged oil installations, incited civil disobedience and trampled human rights.

"He is a terrorist and a coup-plotter," Chavez said of Fernandez during the president's weekly television address. "Let the decision be obeyed, it is the court's order. If it were up to me he wouldn't be at home, he would be behind bars."***

[hoosierham]

If you strike at the king, you MUST kill him ;fail and you and yours WILL suffer.