"They were not bolivarian circles"
Carlos Eduardo Ruiz
Those were the words of the Interior and Justice Minister, Liutenant (r) Diosdado Cabello, given to a radio station, hours later after the numerous calls for central government intervention to restore the seriously altered public order, at Caracas, Venezuela, during the morning hours of friday August 2nd, 2002, voiced by several speakers of the Venezuelan democratic society.
How did the minister know they were not bolivarian circles? What Venezuela knows, is that the only investigation the central government is THINKING ON CARRYING OUT, is the one ordered by Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel against the Caracas Metropolitan Police (PM) that prompted two public prosecutors to make themselves present at the PM headquarters -when there still were numerous Chavez simphatizers stationed on Llaguno Bridge- Could there be that Minister Cabello did not need to carry out any investigation because he knew beforehand who were the men that blasted gunshots towards the police officers at the Monte Piedad sector of the 23rd-of-January parish?
This is the second time SHARPSHOOTERS HOLDING MILITARY RIFLES appear on scene. It is also the second time this kind of violent people blasts gunshots towards officers and vehicles of the Caracas Metropolitan Police. The first time was during the Miraflores Massacre (April 11th, 2002, when 17 unarmed civilian protesters resulted dead and more than a hundred others injured by gunshots, when they marched on Miraflores Palace -the seat of the Venezuelan Presidency- to ask for Hugo Chavez resignation).
Comisary General Henry Vivas, Director of the Caracas Metropolitan Police, explained to TV and radio reporters, that the bullet that -in a very clean way- got through one of his police officers' leg AFTER HAVING GOTTEN THROUGH THE METAL ARMOR OF "THE WHALE" (a police vehicle armed with a water cannon), was an armored bullet itself, and came from a military rifle. This, with no doubt, could have been determined by the experienced Comisary Vivas, after he inspected the bullet's entrance and exit orifices -on the vehicle's armor, as well on his police officer's leg-
None of the central government official speakers, despite these very grave public disorders, where police officers and their vehicles were attacked by gunshot fire -coming from handguns as well as military rifles- has informed the press about the begining of any investigation to find out who fired the shots.
The country has not received any information about if any of the two police institutions adscribed to the Interior and Justice Department (Disip and CICPC -old PTJ-) will carry out an investigation. Nor has the Nation Attorney General, who by law (Organic Procesal Penal Code -COPP-), is the top functional authority of the CICPC, spoken any word on the subject. Much less, has any official speaker od the Armed Forces annouced the beginning of an investigation by the Military Intelligence Direction (DIM).
This is very grave
According to Comisary General Henry Vivas, the public disorder was carried out by people who used MILITARY TECHNIQUES:
While a first group of gunmen closed Sucre Avenue using several vehicles robbed at gunpoint, to later place them accross the tarmac to impede traffic flow, a second group of gunmen -conviniently stationed on top of a nearby small hill- and hidden behind a stone fence, fired gun shots to anyone who tried to drive pass the obstacles -as was the case with a station wagon who got all its windows broken by gunshots while the driver miraculously scaped unharmed-
Yet, a third group, stationed further away and in higher ground, protected the second group by firing military rifle shots; and it also fired very precise rifle shots towards the police vehicle aimed against the driver and his companion. Several of those rifle shots GOT THROUGH THE ARMORED WINDSHIELD AND THE LATERAL METAL ARMOR OF THE POLICE VEHICLE.
Venezuelan democratic society MUST ASK for an inmediate and full investigation of these events, that curiously resemble the AMBUSH TECHNIQUES used by the communist guerrillas of the Venezuelan Communist Party (PCV) and Revolutionaty Left Movement (MIR) who during the 1960-1970 decade tried to overturn the democratic-elected governments of Romulo Betancourt and Raul Leoni.
We must not forget, that many of those communist guerrillas, are today flamboyant public officers on Hugo Chavez Frias's "democratic" government..
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