Suspect in Slain Prosecutor Case Killed in Shootout With Police FABIOLA SANCHEZ

AP ^ | Nov 23, 2004

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

A suspect in the slaying of a top Venezuelan prosecutor last week was killed Tuesday in a shootout with police, an official said.

The suspect, a lawyer named Antonio Lopez, was in his car when he was approached by police, police chief Henry Zerpa said. Lopez tried to escape and opened fire at police, who fired back, he said.

Two policemen were wounded in the shootout in central Caracas, Zerpa said.

Lopez had been sought in an investigation into the killing of prosecutor Danilo Anderson, who died in an explosion that ripped through his SUV Thursday night. The government has said the assassination may have been aimed at derailing Anderson's prosecution of supporters of a 2002 coup attempt against President Hugo Chavez.

Authorities did not offer more details or say why Lopez was a suspect.

Prosecutor General Isaias Rodriguez, meanwhile, told reporters that authorities found an SUV believed to have been used by Anderson's attackers on the night of the explosion. Police are investigating the vehicle's owner, he said, without identifying him.

Because of the use of C4 military explosive and a wireless device to trigger the bomb, police suspected that the people behind the incident were not common criminals, but explosives experts.

Interior Minister Jesse Chacon said police were searching for a policeman who had worked on cases with explosives before and were tracing calls to Anderson's phone in search of clues.

Chacon said that they were studying whether the killing had political motives, as Anderson was considered to be sympathetic with the government. It could also be an act of vengeance by some of the people he had investigated during the past years, he added.

Anderson was investigating 400 people who backed an interim government that took power during the brief April 2002 coup against Chavez, who quickly returned to power. Previously, Anderson investigated an opposition mayor, eight policemen for shootings during an opposition march, and 59 dissident military officers.

Chacon asked the United States to support Venezuela's efforts against terrorism, after Chavez announced a new "Anti-Terror Plan" Saturday.

Venezuela has asked the United States to extradite three dissident military officers blamed by a Venezuelan court for bombings in early 2003 against Spanish and Colombian diplomatic missions in Caracas.

"I hope that the U.S. government, which finally believes that terrorism must be fought against, extradites then men who have been accused by Venezuelan justice to be behind the attacks against the Spanish and Colombian diplomatic missions," said Chacon.