Venezuelan official assassinated
Rebuffed in elections, contras turn to terror
By Berta Joubert-Ceci
Sheltered by darkness and cowardly tactics, unknown
assassins placed 250 grams of the powerful plastic C-4
explosive under the car of Venezuelan prosecutor Danilo
Anderson on the night of Nov. 18. The explosion killed him 15
minutes after he started to drive his vehicle.
Anderson, 38, was the principal figure working on several
cases of violent crimes against Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolu
tion, particularly the events surrounding the 2002 coup attempt
against democratically elected President Hugo Chávez,
who was kidnapped by the opposition.
Pedro Carmona, head of the business association FEDECAMARAS,
had then been sworn in as president of Venezuela in the
Miraflores Palace on April 12, 2002. That ceremony was attended
by the leadership of the opposition, who came from the business
and banking oligarchy, the military, the Catholic Church,
leaders of the corrupt Venezuelan Workers Confed eration, and
corporate media. Carmona then ordered the suspension of the
National Assembly and the Constitution, among other
counterrevolutionary rulings and actions. But an uprising of
the people ended the coup and rescued Chávez.
Since then, the government has repaid that trust by
directing much of the income from Venezuela's rich oil industry
into hous ing, food and education for the people.
To bring those responsible for the coup to justice, Anderson
in October had begun subpoenaing 400 of the people whose
signatures appeared on that day's attendance book for the
palace.
Anderson also brought charges against the former Caracas
metropolitan mayor, Alfredo Peña, for conspiracy to
commit homicide, based on testimonies of eight former
metropolitan police now in prison. They are accused of shooting
civilians during the April 11, 2002, counter-revolutionary
actions in Puente Llaguno, where 20 people died and 87 were
wounded. Peña and others in the police department
leadership also face prosecution. They are now prohibited from
leaving the country.
Anderson was also investigating the leaders of
SÚMATE, the opposition organization that has worked to
overthrow Chávez with funds from the U.S. National
Endowment for Democracy (NED). He was working jointly with
Luisa Ortega, another national prosecutor who was kidnapped but
escaped, suffering injuries in the process. Several other cases
stemming from counter-revolutionary actions were in the process
of being taken to the courts as well.
Anderson also prosecuted the former mayor of Baruta,
Henrique Capriles Radonski, because of his role in an attack on
the Cuban Embassy during the April 2002 coup. The embassy had
been surrounded by dozens of counter-revolutionaries who
destroyed its vehicles and cut the water and electricity supply
to the building, where women, children and men were inside.
Because of the gravity of all these cases and Anderson's
resolve to bring justice in the name of the Venezuelan people,
he had been threatened numerous times and even attacked in a
shopping mall in Caracas.
U.S. tries to destabilize Venezuela
The assassination of Danilo Anderson is seen both in
Venezuela and beyond as an escalation of Washington's plan to
destabilize the Bolivarian Revolution. It is felt that the
opposition and their U.S. masters are desperate. The elections
have decisively gone against them. Chávez was reaffirmed
as president in an August referendum; supporters of the
Bolivarian Revolution swept the national and local elections in
October.
Also fueling the opposition's desperation is Chávez's
popularity among the masses worldwide, but particularly in
Latin America, where U.S. plans for "free trade" agreements are
finding growing resistance. Conversely, trade and aid
agreements between Venezuela and other countries of Latin
America, Africa and Asia are a great worry to the U.S., whose
dollar and exports are declining.
The Venezuelan oligarchy is not working alone, as the NED
and other U.S. funding agencies fuel money and resources ONLY
to the opposition. It is a sign of danger for the
Revolution.
This murder comes on the heels of other violent actions and
attempts--like the discovery that a farm owned by a
Cuban-Spaniard in the municipality of Baruta, near Caracas, was
being used to train 100 Colombian paramilitaries to assassinate
President Chávez.
The not-so-invisible hand of the U.S. government and the
connection among Colombian paramilitaries, right-wing Cuban
exiles and the Venezuelan opposition has been exposed both by
Venezuelan government officials and analysts and intellectuals
outside the country.
Vice President José Vicente Rangel has demanded an
explanation from the U.S. for allowing death threats against
Chávez and the training of terrorists on U.S. soil,
particularly in Florida. He mentioned as an example the call
for attempts against the life of President Chávez by
actor Orlando Urdaneta during a Miami television program.
Venezuelan Communication Minister Andrés Izarra also
denounced the terrorist camp F-4 Commands, headquartered in
Miami, where the Venezuelan opposition is trained militarily
with the support of the government of the U.S.
But the clearest proof comes directly from U.S. government
officials. For example, Bush's national security adviser, Condo
leezza Rice, recently said that Chávez is "a real
problem," adding that "the key there is to mobilize the region
to both watch him and be vigilant about him and to pressure him
when he makes moves in one direction or another. We can't do it
alone."
The people of Venezuela, together with their president, are
defending and deepening their revolution. The active support of
the international movement, especially in the U.S., is also
needed to defend Venezuela from imperialist attack.
Reprinted from the Dec. 2, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page