Intrigue,
controversy surround probe of Venezuelan official's killing
By Patrick Moser
AFP
CARACAS
Petroleumworld.com 01 31 06
A probe into the 2004 car bomb killing of a high-profile prosecutor
in Venezuela has raised a storm of intrigue and controversy that
pits the government of President Hugo Chavez against its political
opponents.
The newly-revived affair fills the pages of Venezuelan papers
with a bizarre puzzle of claims and counterclaims over the reasons
for the slaying of Danilo Anderson.
Questions also have been raised in the deaths of three people
who knew Anderson or his killers.
In addition, a press gag imposed in the case has cost Venezuela's
leftist president fresh criticism from international media advocacy
groups, and raised new questions about the independence of the
judiciary.
And, as in any good Venezuelan political intrigue, there are claims
of involvement by US intelligence agents.
Anderson, 38, was killed in November 2004 when a remote controlled
bomb exploded under his car, at a time when he was investigating
government opponents suspected of involvement in a 2002 military-backed
coup against Chavez, who was ousted for only 47 hours.
Chavez declared three days of national mourning after the slaying
and declared Anderson a national hero.
Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez has claimed the hit was a dress
rehearsal for a planned assassination of Chavez, who denounced
the whole thing as "a terrorist plot."
But Interior Minister Jesse Chacon initially said the case appeared
to involve an extortion network, a version supported by the opposition
which accuses authorities of seeking to cover up the case.
Critics of the president, and much of the Venezuelan media, insist
Anderson was the victim of a revenge killing, claiming he ran
an extortion network against those he was investigating.
Three ex-policemen are serving sentences of up to 30 years after
being found guilty of killing Anderson, but prosecutors last year
started new investigations against people they claim masterminded
the assassination.
The four suspects -- a wealthy businessman, a former national
guard general, a prominent journalist and a security expert --
are all well-known opponents of Chavez, a former paratrooper who
has been in power since 1999.
Giovanny Vasquez de Armas, the man expected to become the government's
lead witness, reiterated in a television interview last week that
he was present at a meeting in Panama where several Venezuelans,
as well as US agents, plotted to assassinate Venezuelan government
officials.
Hector Pesquera, who was head of the FBI's office in Miami until
2003, has been named in the case, but a spokeswoman for the bureau
emphatically denied any such involvement.
Vasquez de Armas, who appeared masked in the interview, said he
was at the Panama meetings while acting as an undercover agent
for Colombian secret police.
But Venezuelan media cast serious doubts over his credibility,
claiming he was in jail in Colombia when the meetings were held,
and that documents compiled by the attorney general's office show
he practised medicine without a license, falsified documents and
has a history of run-ins with the law.
The government recently barred local media from publishing elements
from the Vasquez de Armas file.
"This gag order is a shocking attack on press freedom,"
said Ann Cooper, who heads the New York-based Committee to Protect
Journalists.
"We urge the prosecutor to withdraw his request which actively
suppresses human rights."
AFP
01/30/06
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© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
