Detained Fedecamaras boss Carlos Fernandez taken for court appearance on 5 charges including treason

www.vheadline.com Posted: Friday, February 21, 2003 By: Roy S. Carson

Under heavily armed police escort, rebel Venezuelan Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Fedecamaras) president Carlos Fernandez has been taken from State Security Police (DISIP) cells to the Palace of Justice where he is scheduled to appear before the court later this afternoon.  National Guard (GN) riot squads have surrounded the court building against a possible attempt by rebel opposition forces to free the prisoner who faces charges, among others, of treason, incitement to rebellion.

Rebel Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV) leader Carlos Ortega has gone into hiding to avoid arrest for a similar list of crimes which also include incitement to assassinate President Hugo Chavez Frias.  Military Intelligence (DIM) sources say it is only a matter of time before Ortega will be captured but it is also admitted that he may already have fled the country to take up an offer of political asylum offered by the government of Spain.

Organization of American States (OAS) general secretary Cesar Gaviria has surprised accredited diplomats in Caracas by calling on Venezuelan government authorities to afford Fernandez and Ortega privileges "in accord with their highly-placed status in Venezuelan society" but Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez says both men will be treated just the same as any other common criminals and that other government saboteurs will be brought to book.

Opposition propagandists have been attempting to claim that Fernandez was unlawfully arrested when DISIP officers, acting on specific court orders, cornered him at a fashionable restaurant in Las Mercedes just after midnight Thursday.  There had been an exchange of gunfire before Fernandez' bodyguards were disarmed and the prisoner was taken to DISIP HQ in Caracas under close guard.

Today's 34th Control Court hearing will decide if Fernandez should be remanded into the custody of 6th National Prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz for 30 days pending formal charges.