London 03.07.05 | From my own experience I can tell that it is very hard indeed to come to terms with the death of loved ones. Even when such tragedies are caused by natural causes. Just to begin to explain the pain that one goes through when an accident robs one of a person held dear is an almost impossible task; language is of no help in such instances. Thus I can only express my sincerest condolences to the families of Leonardo González Lárez, Edgar Quintero Torrealba and Erick Miguel Montenegro Sánchez, the three students slaughtered for no reason by Hugo Chavez's repressive military apparatus. The reaction from the students in Caracas was swift; yesterday they marched to the office of Venezuela's Attorney General to demand his resignation.
Of course, as I have argued with Jorge Arena over at Miguel's blog in regards to the possible resignation of ministers or police chiefs, to expect such a first wordly reaction from them or the Attorney General, as demanded by the students, is mere wishful thinking:
Jorge, there's absolutely nothing wrong about holding the expectation of accountability to ever take shape in our besieged country. One of the most remarkable things I heard yesterday during the Live 8 transmission was a comment by Miss Dynamite "if thousands of people were to die every day here in Britain, as it happens in Africa, would we tolerate it without reacting?"
Now my question to you; do you honestly believe that should the Metropolitan Police slaughter three students in a street of London heads would not roll in a matter of seconds? The problem is, my friend, Venezuela is not a civilised country; is not a place where the citizenship can expect any form of accountability from the governing establishment.
You have far to high expectations because you, as me, as others who write in these blogs, know other systems and have witnessed how monumental fuck ups, such as the killing of the students, have dire consequences and jail time for those involved. Try and convey that message to isaias or clodosvaldo or jessy. Can you imagine what would have happened should one of their children suffered the same fate? I argued once with that pusillanimous ambassador of ours here in London that there exist two classes of citizens in Venezuela; those in chavez's inner circle and the rest. This is the proof.
According to Oscar Perez the man in charge of the death squad, Major Jose Baldomero Peña Carrillo, was sentenced in the past to three years in jail on fraud charges. The Attorney General knew of this for other accusations with respect to Peña Carrillo have been presented before his office. But what can be expected from an Attorney General's office whose star prosecutor, read Danilo Anderson, was the leader of a ring of thugs extorting millions out of those he meant to be prosecuting? No. The disposable ones will get a slap in the wrist by officialdom and in six months time they will be reassigned to other revolutionary duties. After all this is not the first instance in which death squads assassinate citizens in broad daylight in total disregard of human rights and due process, remember Antonio Lopez Castillo? The autopsy revealed that he had eighteen bullet wounds, eighteen, one in his jaw, at a very close range... Has anyone been made accountable for Lopez Castillo's assassination? No. Has anyone been charged regarding the dissapearance of Silvino Bustillos on October 31st 2004? No...
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