Ramos Allup Security Chief Arrested for Allegedly Financing Anti-Police Violence

Caracas, May 20, 2016 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan National Assembly President Henry Ramos Allup’s head bodyguard was arrested Thursday for allegedly financing anti-police violence during Wednesday’s opposition protests.

An unauthorized opposition march in Caracas turned violent when a group of demonstrators attacked police with sticks and rocks, injuring five officers.

Seven suspects were subsequently arrested, one of whom allegedly confessed that “a group of young men were paid by the head of security of a right-wing legislator of the National Assembly to participate in the violent actions seen on Wednesday”.

On Thursday, Angel Coromoto Rodriguez, alias “Comisario”, was detained by National Bolivarian Intelligence Service agents for his suspected role in the violence.

“The mastermind who paid these terrorists to beat up that young policewoman has been detained today,” declared Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

“He will be judged and sent to a maximum security prison. He is an old torturer from the Democratic Action Party,” the head of state added.

The current security chief for Ramos Allup had previously served as a life long bodyguard to former Democratic Action president Carlos Andres Perez, who was impeached for corruption in 1993.

According to socialist lawmaker Diosdado Cabello, Rodriguez was also an official in the infamous political police force, the Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP), which operated during Venezuela’s pacted representative democracy, known as the Fourth Republic.

Rodriguez has been allegedly identified by legendary Socialist League leader David Nieves as one of the DISIP agents involved in his torture during his political imprisonment by the Perez government in 1976.

“When they tortured me, they blindfolded my eyes, so I never could see Coromoto Rodriguez, but through the conversations I heard and the investigations over the years, I found out that he was one of the people who participated in the tortures that the police inflicted on me,” Nieves explained.

National Assembly President Henry Ramos Allup, for his part, denied the allegations against his security chief.

“Typical attitude of a coward. As they don’t dare to go after me, they pursue the humble people who work with me,” he stated via Twitter.

Rodriguez remains in police custody as he awaits formal charges.