Venezuela: newspaper office bombed
By A.M. Mora y Leon | Publius Pundit
08.03.06 | A newspaper office in Los Teques, a small city south of Caracas, was bombed in a multiple molotov cocktail attack that was politically motivated. There were no injuries.
The paper, La Region, had done too much reporting on the state of Venezuela’s abysmal health care, led by Cuban agents. Angry fliers were left at the scene of the crime, calling the reporters, in explicitly Castroite language, “miserable,” and declaring that they deserved the death penalty by ‘people’s tribunals.’ (Recall that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro likes to use the word ‘miserable’ - an odd word, really - on his enemies.)
Venezuela hasn’t had the death penalty since the early 19th century.
This clearly marks a bloodthirsty turn in the chavista attackers. I would suspect that these are the work of grassroots “Bolivarian Circles” attacks rather state-sponsored, as state agents were there at the scene of the crime investigating. That of course may be all for show, but there is a very broad trend of do-it-yourself-gangs, do-it-yourself-political-enforcement-circles, and do-it-yourself-militaries, all of which are flourishing now in Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela. None of them are in the control of the state, and they are violent.
However, the presence of government investigators does keep Amnesty International and Reporters without Borders at bay.
The proof of whether the government is serious will be in whether they catch or punish anyone, something that has a very remote possibility.
Besides this being a new willingness to use violence, note that the city is Los Teques, where last week, we reported here that among the Chavista women, there was deep, deep discontent about the failures of the Chavista bureaucrats who are doing nothing to help the poor. I find this very significant.
I had predicted that these Los Teques women would face trouble in the future and this brings them this much closer to this kind of trouble. Destroy the critical newspaper and don’t be surprised if the critical housewives suffer the same summary gangland fate. It’s all part of the engine of Chavismo that is tearing Venezuela to shreds.
The ominous story is here.
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