Venezuela: City Councilman continues to link Government figures to Anderson murder
By Miguel Octavio
19.12.04 | City councilman Carlos Herrera appears in both today’s El Nacional and El Universal saying essentially the same thing about what I wondered about in my last post. His statements show that he keeps pointing to the Vice-Presidency and individuals in the finance sector for responsibility for the death of Prosecutor Danilo Anderson. Herrera was Anderson’s best friend. They also show that the investigation is not following up all of the leads and there is an important Government rift about the case. Let’s see:
In El Nacional Herrera says:
“The Attorney General/Prosecutor has to know that there are lots of people that are near him that are conspiring behind his back...”
Anderson adds that in different occasions he has been willing to collaborate with authorities telling them what he knows, but there are groups that are not interested in that he does it. He says the investigative police has yet to interview him or ask him about what he has denounced.
He said that while the Vice-President said his statements were garbage, he is glad the Attorney General has found them useful.
In El Universal he calls on the Attorney general to meet with him on Monday because he has things that he can not say publicly, because people would start running. “If I say what I know, they will never catch the intellectual authors of the murder because they would leave the country”.
He added that the Carmona decree was signed by only three bankers, thus it is not that difficult to investigate.
Separately, Anderson’s girlfriend says in today’s newspapers, that the Vice-president called Anderson more than twenty times the week before his death and an additional twenty calls from Rangel’s’ assistants, adding that Rangel was pressuring Anderson.
Both Herrera and his girlfriend suggest that he was killed for prosecuting some people for being in the Presidential Palace on April 12th. While the cases are reported as people being prosecuted for rebellion for signing the decree that Carmona issued that day, among those that are being prosecuted are people who were at the Presidential Palace and did not sign the decree, but either signed the attendance sheets at the entrance or have been seen in videos as being present at the palace. Coincidentally, the first 40 of those Anderson had charged with rebellion, can no longer leave the country according to a decision by a Court yesterday. This includes Maria Corina Machado the Head of Sumate, who now has been charge for two separate crimes.
The Supreme Court ruled in August 2003 that five Generals involved with Chávez’ brief departure in April 2002 could not be charged with rebellion because no weapons were used. In order for the Chavez Government to succeed with the prosecution of the 400 people that went to the Presidential Palace in April 12th., that decision needs to be overturned. Despite the fact that Supreme Court decisions can not be overturned, the Attorney General has asked that Court, now firmly packed by Chavistas, to overturn the case. The Court has accepted the case.
The only reason for doing this is to simply get rid of about 400 opposition leaders with one stroke. Besides going o jail, if any of these people are found guilty they will not be eligible to hold public office for life.
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