Colombian paramilitaries kill  PPT leader inside Venezuela ... 14 more on hit list!

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Monday, April 28, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Colombian paramilitaries have murdered Patria Para Todos (PPT) Apure State regional leader, Jorge Nieves. According to PPT national leader, Rafael Uzcategui, the death follows documented threats against 15 PPT activists in the border states of Apure and Tachira. 

Nieves worked in the oil industry for the Energy & Mines (MEM)  Ministry and received four bullets, as he parked his car in Guasdualito to join a march for landless peasants. 

In a public  statement, PPT says it will not heed the threats from people attempting to destabilize border areas. Uzcategui insists that the paramilitaries are Colombian and not Venezuela as reported in some newspapers. 

Meanwhile in Zulia State, the Police Detective Branch (PTJ) reports that Self-Defense Units of Colombia (AUC) paramilitaries have killed two Colombian citizens the AUC claims to have been collaborators of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). 

The summary execution took place in the jungle region of Venezuela's Maria Semprun municipality (Zulia).  

Jose Antonio Acevedo Urbina (33)  and Edith Panataleon (42) were shot in the back allegedly escaping an AUC cross-border raid. 

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Office (UNHRC) has confirmed the presence of displaced persons in several border States fleeing the violence in Colombia.