Free Republic

A Venezuelan man has been sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison for shooting and wounding two US military attaches at a strip club in the capital. Carlos Mejias, 32, admitted he shot the US Embassy employees in the early hours of May 28, the attorney general's office said. It said Mejias got into an argument with them at the Antonella 2012 club, better known as "Angelus," in the city's upscale Chacao district. "Later he pulled out a gun and repeatedly fired at the Americans, leaving them wounded at the location," it said in a statement. Five days later, Mejias...

CARACAS — Two employees of the US embassy in Venezuela were shot and wounded early Tuesday in the capital Caracas, in a murky incident that local media and a police source said took place at a strip club. "We can confirm that two members of the US embassy in Caracas were injured during an incident early this morning," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters in Washington. "Medical staff inform us that their injuries are not life-threatening," he added, noting that they were hurt at "some sort of a social spot" but without specifying the venue or nature of their...

Mayor López indicted for arrest of former Interior Minister The Attorney General's Office Friday indicted Leopoldo López, Mayor of the Chacao Municipality of Caracas, in connection with the detention of former Interior and Justice Minister Ramón Rodríguez Chacín in April 2002. López was charged with housebreaking and false arrest against Rodríguez Chachín. López said that he and his colleague Henrique Capriles Radonski, Mayor of the Baruta Municipality of Caracas, are innocent because they acted abiding by the law, and met an order that the Attorney General's Office itself issued.