Venezuela News Review 19.04.06
By Aleksander Boyd
• Justice and Interior Minister Jessy Chacon informed that a new police corps "in tune with expectations and requirements from the citizenry" shall be created. Observers dread that the Chavez regime will recreate the repressive apparatus formerly know as Policia Nacional. The dramatic increase of extra judicial killings, crime in general, and the involvement that police corps have had in recent assassinations bears a hefty political costs to the Chavez revolution.
• Foreign Secretary Ali Rodriguez, upon return from a long holiday in Cuba where he was being 'treated,' reaffirmed, yet again, Venezuela's support to Iran's nuclear race. The 'peaceful programme' could allow, amongst other niceties, Ahmadinejad and deranged Mullahs to wipe Israel off the map, peacefully though. His words came to strenghten the official visit that Nicolas Maduro, President of Venezuela's National Congress, paid to Ahmadinejad earlier this month.
• President Hugo Chavez alerted US authorities that should an invasion ever occur it will be utterly crushed by Venezuelan revolutionary soldiers. His similarity with Saddam and Noriega is coincidental. Chavez declared that American military exercises, which take place yearly, constitute an affront to both Cuba and Venezuela. Cuba's Ambassador to Venezuela Felipe Perez Roque was among the delighted crowd hearing the president.
• 15 inmates lost their lives in Santa Ana prison, Tachira state. Cause of death remains unknown.
• An audience of appeals in favour of union leader and president of Venezuela's Confederation of Workers, Carlos Ortega, who stands sentenced to 16 years imprisonment on trumped up charges, was heard before the 7th Court of Appeals.
• Eliezer Otaiza, erstwhile stripper cum police chief and director of Venezuela's land institute, requested that Lourdes Flores, Peru's presidential contender, be investigated owing to her alleged participation in the capture in Venezuela of wanted criminal Wladimiro Montesinos. Neither Chavez nor his Peruvian protegé had anything to do with the investigation, or so they say.
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