Posted on 04/27/2002 1:41:14 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
ARACAS, Venezuela, April 26 — On the day power in Venezuela briefly changed hands, Mohamad Yusef Merhi and his 18-year-old son joined hundreds of thousands of protesters in an unauthorized march across the capital to demand the resignation of President Hugo Chávez.
Euphoria moved the sea of unarmed people past police officers warning of danger, and Mr. Merhi's son, a high school senior, got swept up in the chanting: "Not a single step back."
But soon after, gunfire from a bridge and scattered rooftops burst through the bravado, setting off a political crisis and leaving 17 Venezuelans dying in the streets. Among them was Mr. Merhi's son, Jesús Espinoza, whose skull was shattered by a bullet that slammed through the top of his head.
Two weeks after the violence, distrust and confusion linger over the events of April 11, which left more than 100 people injured.
Clashing political camps, divided mainly by their support for or opposition to Mr. Chávez, fill radio and television airwaves with accusations against one other for pushing the country to violence. Human rights investigators charge that Mr. Chávez's government, considered a leading suspect in the shootings, is incapable of guaranteeing an impartial investigation.
All the victims were killed in shooting that covered some three blocks south of the Miraflores Palace. Although survivors report that gunfire seemed to come at them from all directions, most of those who died — whether Chávez supporters or government opponents — suffered a single gunshot wound to the head, suggesting that trained sharpshooters were at work.
In at least five cases, the downward trajectory of the bullet wounds support eyewitness accounts of sharpshooters firing on the protesters from atop towers in the area.
On Thursday, the National Assembly voted to establish an independent truth commission to support and monitor government investigations into the violence. The nine-member panel, which is expected to file its first report within 45 days, will include three legislators and representatives from human rights organizations, the Roman Catholic Church and two universities.
Law enforcement investigators have begun collecting evidence from the killings. As a team of 15 agents and 20 homicide experts start analyzing hours of videotape and recorded police transmissions, Venezuelans have begun pressing for a complete response to these questions: Who are the 16 men and the woman who died, and how did they die?
Information cobbled together from funeral homes, hospitals and the morgue and from relatives of the dead indicates that the shooting victims were in fact a broad cross section of people living on either side of the economic and social turmoil that polarizes Venezuela.
Most seemed motivated to march by various degrees of civic conviction. In 11 of the 17 cases examined, the number of Chávez supporters killed was almost equal to the number of opponents, like Mr. Merhi, who were killed. At least one of the victims happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Among the victims was Alexis Bordones Sotelo, 52, a retired administrator at an oil subsidiary who was in Caracas to meet his new granddaughter and decided to take part in the march against Mr. Chávez.
There was 47-year-old Jorge Tortoza, a newspaper photographer whose work focused on the crime that ravages life in the slums. Ruddy Urbano Duque, 38, was an artisan who sold handmade leather belts and key chains on the street. Relatives who recovered his body from the morgue said his face was painted with pro-Chávez slogans.
A file clerk, Nelson Zambrano, 23, was shot while leaving his job at the presidential compound. And 29-year-old Jhonnie Palencia was a mattress factory worker and leader of the leftist political party called Bandera Roja, or Red Flag.
In a rundown tenement near the airport, a 27-year-old appliance salesman recalled April 11. The salesman, Luber Caro, and his father, Luis Alberto, joined a countermarch of thousands of people who headed to the presidential palace in support of Mr. Chávez.
The two men considered themselves regulars on this country's turbulent protest circuit. The elder Mr. Caro, a union leader at an appliance manufacturing company, had helped lead numerous labor strikes. But the call of April 11, the younger Mr. Caro said, felt more urgent.
"The opposition wanted to overthrow Chávez," Mr. Caro said. "We had to go defend him." The price of this solidarity proved high. Mr. Caro's father was killed by a bullet that smashed through his face.
The families of the dead struggle against their own feelings of outrage, seeking some kind of closure. Their instinct tells them that the violence was orchestrated by powerful political interests. But their minds acknowledge that, for now, all is murky. "This was not one political band against another," said Jeanette Flores, an actress and sister of Mr. Urbano, the artisan who was killed. "This was a fight of Venezuelans against Venezuelans. All of us should be ashamed. And if there is ever a real investigation, I bet we'll see that more than one side is to blame."
The family of Mr. Tortoza, the newspaper photographer, has begun its own investigation. Seated around their coffee table, the photographer's siblings and cousins pore through newspaper clippings of the events of April 11, seeking to reconstruct the sequence of the shootings.
They have collected photos that show, from every angle, Mr. Tortoza on Baralt Avenue, bleeding from a head wound. They have memorized the action on video clips, pointing out protesters before they fall in the line of fire. "It doesn't help, no matter how many times I watch it," said Sonia Tortoza de Blanco, sister of Mr. Tortoza. The video, she said, "leaves me with more questions than answers."
Mr. Tortoza and a reporter, Jenny Oropeza, covered "sucesos," or the cop beat. He was a serious man, she said, whose passions showed in the way he aimed his lens. He never flinched about taking photos of the most brutalized bodies. But sometimes, Ms. Oropeza said, when most of the other photographers crowded around a corpse, Mr. Tortoza would focus on police officers providing assistance to the survivors.
His instincts told him early in the morning of April 11 that the march against Mr. Chávez could bring trouble. He talked about it over breakfast with his sister. Both of them felt that Mr. Chávez's opponents were seeking to provoke violence.
"Things are getting worse," Mr. Tortoza said, referring to an indefinite work stoppage that had been called by the president's opponents. "It seems to me that they want to overthrow the government. I can't tell how this is going to end."
"I can," Ms. Blanco responded. She said that Mr. Chávez's opponents were seeking at least "one death."
Many of the relatives interviewed said they had isolated themselves until they could work through some of their grief. Others said they had not come forward because they worried that dueling political camps would seize upon the deaths of their loved ones to ignite tensions. Others said that they were afraid.
"Things seem so tense that I still don't know if there are people out there who would attack me or my family if we speak," said María Capote, mother of Jesús Espinoza, the dead high school senior. She only agreed to be interviewed after checking with trusted human rights investigators. "The people who killed my son are still out there."
That kind of fear is new, said Liliana Ortega, a leading human rights investigator. Her agency was formed after food riots of 1989, in which hundreds of people were killed. The exact number and identities of the dead have never been confirmed. No one was ever convicted for the killings. Still, Ms. Ortega said, in the days following those riots relatives of the dead quickly began forming support groups and investigative committees. They held news conferences and marches.
Since April 11, she said, her office has received threats by telephone and the Internet. Only a handful of the relatives of the dead have filed complaints. "People are afraid," Ms. Ortega said. "That is clear."
Alexis Bordones's family members said they lacked faith in the system. "I don't have much faith in earthly justice," said his son-in-law, José Ramón Alvarez. "Here, all the investigations go nowhere. There's never anyone punished."
Mr. Bordones, the former oil company administrator, loved to read and write poetry. He had voted for Mr. Chávez, Mr. Alvarez said, but had been increasingly disenchanted by a declining economy and a slump in foreign investment.
Mr. Chávez's move to appoint his own allies to control the state-run oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, prompted Mr. Bordones to join the protests on April 11.
Relatives recall last seeing him alive when he left his daughter's house carrying a Venezuelan flag. Later images of Mr. Bordones's body flashed across television screens. The flag covered his chest.
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The two men considered themselves regulars on this country's turbulent protest circuit. The elder Mr. Caro, a union leader at an appliance manufacturing company, had helped lead numerous labor strikes. But the call of April 11, the younger Mr. Caro said, felt more urgent.
Hugo Chavez is arming these Chavistas and feeding them hate with his rhetoric. He calls on leaders of his Bolivarian Circles to rally these thugs. He's using them to intimidate his opponents in order to sieze power. Chavistas Still Committed - While Chavez Accumulates Power*** "They (the opposition) don't like Chavez because he's black, he's Indian, and they're white and beautiful," said Hugo Salvador, a 60-year-old advertising employee. He stood amid a jostling crowd of fellow "Bolivarian Circle" members who shouted, "We're the poor, the ones who have always been kicked around."***
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The family of Mr. Tortoza, the newspaper photographer, has begun its own investigation. Seated around their coffee table, the photographer's siblings and cousins pore through newspaper clippings of the events of April 11, seeking to reconstruct the sequence of the shootings. - Photos of Mr. Tortoza
Alexis Bordones Sotelo-- I wonder if he was one of the oil exec. Hugo "retired." - April 7, 2002 - Venezuela Leader Gets Tough on State Oil Executives *** CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sacked seven dissident state oil executives Sunday in a steely response to a labor protest that some industry sources said was disrupting operations by the world's No. 4 petroleum exporter.***
Venezuela Has State Dept. Concerned *** WASHINGTON (AP) - Democracy must once again thrive in Venezuela in order for that country and the United States to have a strong relationship, a State Department official said Friday, two weeks after a coup temporarily ousted President Hugo Chavez. In the past three years under Chavez, the United States has increasingly become concerned about "the health of institutions in Venezuela that are essential to democracy," said Lino Gutierrez, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. "For the U.S.-Venezuela relationship to thrive again, it is essential to revitalize Venezuela's democracy," Gutierrez said. "The U.S. has a serious desire of good relations with Venezuela."***
Uh, the latter would be - Chavez. But in the little world of the NY Times, "powerful political interests" can only be the nefarious right wing.
Poor things, they just can't come out and admit the truth, which is that Communism kills. Even (or especially) "Bolivarian" Communism.
Who would have benefited if a full on civil war had started?
Perhaps other oil producing nations...
Franco was a true hero. He fought the communists province by province, town by town, street by street. He was the first man to have the courage to rise up and defeat communism. Before he was able to drive them out, thousands of priests and nuns were murdered, the country was ravaged, and Stalin stole all of the Spanish gold out of their treasury. Despite this, he was gracious in victory, and allowed the dead leftists to be buried side by side with his soldiers at the Valley of the Fallen. During his reign, crime was non-existent. You could leave your car running in the street with the window down and your wallet on the seat without worrying about whether someone would steal it.
I know a lot less about Pinochet, but I do know that Chile is a stable, safe and beautiful country that is an economic superpower compared with any other South American nation.
That is exactly the kind of man Venezuela needs. Those men were present during the Bay of Pigs, but the man who was shot a thousand days too late deserted them. The poor people of Cuba have suffered for nearly 50 years because of that. I know. My wife's family had to flee their island paradise because of Castro.
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