Fernandez' arrest the first in a planned series says opposition deputy
www.vheadline.com Posted: Thursday, February 20, 2003 By: Roy S. Carson
Accion Democratica (AD) deputy Henry Ramos Allup says that the Chavez Frias government plans further detentions over the next several days after last night's successful capture by DISIP security agents of rebel Fedecamaras president Carlos Fernandez. Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV) president Carlos Ortega is next on the list along with leading opposition dissidents including rebel PDVSA executive Juan Fernandez, CTV secretary general Manuel Cova, Globovision's Alberto Federico Ravell and Guillermo Zuloaga, El National editor Miguel Henrique Otero, shadowy Coca Cola billionaire Gustavo Cisneros, Venevision's Víctor Ferreres, Televen's Omar and RCTV's Marcel Granier and Eladio Lares.
The list does not contain the names of any National Assembly (AN) deputy since all parliamentary representatives enjoy immunity from arrest while holding office. Ramos Allup says that opposition deputies are on a general alert because "the government's action is a ferocious reaction and they will not be caught up in legalities ... the g overnment prefers to shoot first and investigate afterwards."
Rebel PDVSA leader Juan Fernandez is making a renewed call for Venezuelans to take to the streets in protest for "however long it takes to overthrow the Chavez Frias regime" insisting that the current government is leading Venezuela back to the Dark Ages.
Opposition rhetoric set aside, security and law enforcement agencies have been piling up damning evidence against Venezuela's anti-constitutional opposition which has been less than guarded in their open defiance of law & order and the 1999 Constitution. Government lawyers have begun a series of legal actions against the perpetrators which evidences the overwhelming fact of the current government's adherence to democratic procedures despite wild propagandist accusations of dictatorship and a drift in to a totalitarian communist state.
Opposition propagandists have kept up a constant barrage of blatant lies against the democratically-elected government of Venezuela, insisting a return to the status quo enjoyed by a minority corrupt elite during the last 40+ years under the guise of Venezuelan democracy.
In the latest thrust, Militares Democraticos -- a propaganda organization in support of rebel ex-military officers congregated in Plaza Altamira -- have claimed that Venezuela is being used as an Al Qaeda terrorist base and that the 37-year-old man arrested in London a week ago with a hand grenade in his luggage had obtained Venezuelan nationality as a terrorist cover ID. What Militares Democraticos had forgotten (or neglected) to mention in their internationally disseminated propaganda was the fact that the ID and passport had been issued under special instructions from then President Carlos Andres Perez (CAP) just months before he was impeached and imprisoned on multi-$ million corruption charges.