Anti-Chavez protesters murdered

www.guardian.co.uk Owain Johnson in Caracas Thursday February 20, 2003 The Guardian

Three dissident Venezuelan military officers and a young woman have been found dead after apparently being kidnapped, tortured and killed, for what some people fear may have been political motives.

A fifth victim, a 14-year-old girl, survived the attack and is in intensive care.

The three men were part of a group of rebel officers who had declared themselves opposed to the leftwing president, Hugo Chavez.

The officers had been occupying the Plaza Altamira, in the capital's wealthy eastern suburbs, since late October.

Witnesses told police that the group was kidnapped near the Plaza in the early hours of Sunday morning. Armed men reportedly forced them into two cars and drove away.

A farm worker discovered the bodies of Zaida Peroza, 28, a tourism graduate, and Felix Pinto, 25, an air force officer, and the 14-year-old Rosana Rivero on the side of a road east of Caracas on Sunday morning.

Rosana Rivero was still alive and was taken to a nearby hospital, where her condition is described as critical.

The bodies of naval officer Angel Salas and infantryman Darwin Arguello, both 21, were discovered in a park east of the city on Monday afternoon.

All the four dead were found bound and gagged.

Police gave the cause of death as multiple shotgun wounds, and added that the bodies showed additional injuries consistent with the use of torture.

The leader of the dissident military officers, General Enrique Medina Gomez, said the officers were part of a group which took turns to keep watch over the square. He described the murders as "a crime against humanity".

Salas' brother Edwin, who is also a rebel naval officer, said the dissidents' public stand against the Chavez government had made them many enemies.

He said he and his brother had been subjected to constant intimidation since deciding to join the protests.

Mr Salas accused elements within the Venezuelan police and intelligence services of "persecuting" dissident officers. He said that they had also received violent threats from the Bolivarian Circles - groups of pro-government activists - and from the far-left Tupamaro group.

"The murder of my brother and his friends was carefully planned," Mr Salas said. "Everything about the way it was carried out points to a political motive."

Many of the senior military officers involved in the protests in the Plaza Altamira were involved in the short-lived coup against President Chavez last April.

The dissidents accuse Mr Chavez of authoritarianism and of using the armed forces to bolster his social reform projects. They also allege that Mr Chavez's "Bolivarian revolution" in favour of the poor masks a long-term project to introduce Cuban-style socialism to the oil-rich nation.

Despite international mediation, the political divide between Chavez supporters and opponents has widened since last April's coup, and the opposition recently held a damaging two-month strike with the aim of forcing the president's resignation.

As political tension has grown, violent incidents between the two sides have become increasingly common.

Government and opposition representatives signed an agreement on Tuesday to tone down verbal attacks on one another, but it remains unclear what influence this will have on their supporters.

The head of Venezuela's human rights association, Rafael Narvaez, who is representing the families of the four latest dead, said he had little hope that those responsible would be caught or punished.

"There are no credible institutions left any more, and there is currently no rule of law or due process in Venezuela," he said. "We will push as hard as we can for the authorities to investigate the murders, but if we hit a brick wall, we will ask the international community to apply pressure," Mr Narvaez said.