Llaguno Bridge shooters and losers add up to vulnerable legal system

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, April 03, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

VHeadline.com News Editor Patrick J. Donoghue writes: What is sad about the Llaguno Bridge Shooters court sentence is that it reveals how bad the legal system is in Venezuela. 

For all  opposition ravings about "bent" or corrupt judges, the government can point to several other high-profile cases to cry opposition control over what the media in 1996-1998 dubbed "complacent" judges. Just to mention a few:

• Lifting of arrest warrants against six top Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) executives & managers responsible for nearly scuttling the oil industry
• Carlos Fernandez released from house arrest
• Carlos Ortega, Pedro Carmona and Rear Admiral Molina Tamayo allowed to flee the country
• Rebel and insubordinate military officers reinstated and/or not put on trial
• Managers at the San Tome PDVSA plant reinstated after abandoning their posts

Why should there be any surprise about the 4 Llaguno Bridge Shooters?

Their lawyer used the same legal loopholes an opposition lawyer would use, in this case that there is no strong evidence to indicate that the bullets seen leaving the shooters' pistols actually killed somebody.

Why can't state prosecutors prepare their case properly and collect the evidence?

People were shocked to see civilians shooting from the bridge on April 11 ... it was a brilliant piece of filming that changed the course of Venezuela's history.  It was only days later that doubts began to appear about the role of the Metropolitan Police (PM) during the March on Miraflores and the following days. 

It has not been cleared up yet.

Can we conclude that Venezuela's legal system is as corrupt as ever and its judges are as vulnerable as ever to political control.

No wonder desperate opposition deputy, Liliana Hernandez takes a dig at people for not protesting on the streets ... who can blame people for showing skepticism after being led up the garden path so many times in the last two years by trade union leaders and business bosses playing politicians and politicians running around like headless chickens?

In the shooters' case the state prosecutor has to draw up a case against the suspects before April 20 for illegal use of firearms and public intimidation which carries an 8-year jail sentence.

State prosecutors must work harder and use their skills to draw up tighter cases against the PDVSA Six and Carlos Fernandez ... and the Shooters.

Will they? Probably not.

As one foreign legal expert comments: the majority of the judges are provisional anyway.  But justice must be seen to work whether the case is government or opposition.

What has happened to the Police Detective Branch (CICPC) special April 11 investigation?

What has happened to special Attorney General's Office watchdog, Father Vivas Suria?

That is why an independent truth commission is still the answer.

• There is nothing clear cut about April 11-14.

No side should get away with kidnapping April 11 for partisan use.