PrintSigns of a death squad operation in Venezuela
Marta Colomina, a leading journalist in Venezuela, writes in El Universal today about growing evidence that the police shootings of three students in Caracas last Monday was an authentic death squad operation. We described Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez's boiling internal battles with the universities as a likely police motive for the killings yesterday here.
Now, unless Colomina is wrong, and she usually isn't, new chilling details are emerging. The six students were going home from Santa Maria University after their exams. They were cornered by several armed ski—mask—wearing men no identification who appeared to be kidnappers. The students stopped for them and were led out of the car. Some were tied, bound and shot at close range. Some pleaded for their lives. After three were shot dead, witnesses heard the police talk on the radio with headquarters and Colomina cites this:
'There are two dead and one wounded,' a voice said. 'Three dead,' answered another voice in a commanding tone. 'NO, but one is wounded,' the first voice corrected him. 'I told you there are three. That is the order. Three dead, period'... 'At about 1:30 am a four—door SUV, metallic blue color, without any signs, 'one of those large pretty ones' arrived. It came to pick up the bodies. They took two from the alley and the third one (Leonardo), they picked him up right here in front of the house. They threw them into the compartment as if they were dogs.' A few more police came 'there were about 50 of them,' all from the DIM and the CICPC. What followed was 'a cleanup operation and the planting of weapons' until 5 am.
Read the full story translated on VCrisis here.
A.M. Mora y Leon 07 04 05
