Investigations on Recent Bomb Attacks are “Partially Resolved”

Lucas Rincon, the Minister of the Interior and Justice, said yesterday that the investigations on the the bombings against the headquarters of the telecommunications commission, Conatel, the military compound Fuerte Tiuna, and the “Francisco de Miranda” military Air Base in Caracas, are close to being resolved. So far, seven people have been arrested in connection with the bombings.

According to Rincon, the investigation shows that there are connections between the bombings and that they could have been caused by the same group. However, Rincon did not want to name any suspects.

Responding to a question about Antonio Ledezma, the head of the party Alianza Bravo Pueblo, who said that the government is organizing a “self-coup,” Rincon responded that “the leaders of the opposition and the Democratic Coordinator (the opposition coalition) are saying fantastic things which no one believes, with the aim of putting fear into the population. These are pure lies.”

Rincon also said that the cases of the bombings of earlier this year, against the Colombian and Spanish embassies and against the Caracas Teleport, where the negotiations between the government and the opposition were taking place, are close to being resolved. Here too Rincon did not want to name any one in particular.

Miguel Rodriguez, the director of the Disip, the Venezuelan equivalent to the FBI, however, previously said that dissident military officers such as Luis Chacin, Nestor Gonzalez, Enrique Medina Gomez, and Felipe Rodriguez are among the most important suspects in the cases of the high-powered bombings. These discharged officers have set up a permanent protest camp at Plaza Francia in the affluent neighboorhood Altamira in eastern Caracas. Gonzalez and Rodriguez participated in the cout d’etat against President Chavez last year.  

The Disip director also said that members of the opposition coalition “Bloque Democratico” is involved. Bloque Democratico is a coalition of organizations that split off of the Democratic Coordinator and is openly championing a “civil-military rebellion” against Chavez.