Venezuela: Violent Protesters to Face Criminal Charges

Caracas, August 31^st 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) - Venezuelan Attorney General Luisa Ortega announced on Friday that protesters who disturb "tranquility and public peace" would face criminal charges, after a series of opposition protests turned violent. The protests are aimed at destabilising the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Ortega said. 

"People who disturb order and peace to create instability of institutions, to destabilize the government, or attack the democratic system," will be charged, regardless of their political persuasion, Ortega said in a statement.

In recent weeks Venezuelan opposition groups have staged a series of violent protests against the new Education Law passed on August 14^th, claiming it will lead to ‘socialist indoctrination,' despite the fact that the new law specifically prohibits political proselytising of any kind in the classroom.

The most vehement opposition to the law, which prohibits religious education during school hours, increases access to education for the poor, and guarantees "education as a universal human right," has come predominantly from the association of rectors of Venezuela's major autonomous and private universities, opposition political parties, much of the privately owned media, and the Catholic Church.

In the period leading up to the debate over the law in the National Assembly many private media outlets called for protests against the law and circulated the false claim that it would allow the state to take arbitrary custody of children between the ages of three and twenty for ‘socialist indoctrination.'

However, Ortega dismissed opposition claims as untrue saying they are simply looking for "any reason to create chaos."

"All they want is to destabilize," she said. "The Public Ministry won't allow this to continue."

Arrests

Prosecutors announced on Friday that eleven officials employed by the opposition Mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, had been charged in relation to various offences, allegedly committed at protests on August 22^nd and 26^th, including resisting authorities, interfering with police communications systems, damaging public property and severely injuring a police officer. 

Among those arrested was Caracas Prefect Ricardo Blanco, who is charged with incitement to crime and seriously injuring a police officer in relation to an incident on August 22^nd in which a Metropolitan police officer, Jhonatan Bermúdez, was severely beaten, during a several thousand strong opposition protest.

Blanco, who is being held in Yare jail, has also been accused of physically assaulting VTV journalist Erika Ortega, but has not been charged over the incident.

Another participant in the August 22^nd protest, Jose Miguel Peña Rodríguez, was also arrested for possessing a stolen firearm. The gun, a 38-calibre revolver was reported stolen by the branch of the CICPC (Venezuela's investigative police) in the municipality of Chacao. Peña Rodríguez is identified as the bodyguard of city councillor Maribel Castillo, from the opposition party Podemos.

During the August 22^nd protest one government opponent told Avila TV, "all it would take is one bullet in the head to fix Chavez," while others called for a coup d'état "like the one in Honduras."

On August 12^th a small group of opposition protestors also attacked the state educational administration building in Nueva Esparta state, attempting to force their way into the premises, causing minor injuries to some workers and damages to offices in the process.

José Marcano, president of the Unitary Teacher's Force Union (SINAFUM), who was participating in a separate protest related to a workplace dispute and witnessed the incident said, "They were not representatives of teachers, nor were they teachers, they were political groups."

Then on August 29 government opponents attacked and vandalized the state educational administration building in San Cristobal, capital of the opposition- controlled state of Táchira.

Otto Lenin Parada, regional education chief, blamed Táchira opposition governor César Pérez Vivas for the violence.

"The person responsible here, the material and intellectual author of these actions is César Alejandro Pérez Vivas, fascist governor of the state of Táchira," he said.

The individuals who participated in the attack on the educational institution have been identified as belonging to the opposition political parties COPEI (Pérez Vivas's party) and Democratic Action, he added.

Parada called on the Attorney General's office to open an investigation into the incident.

Published on Aug 31st 2009 at 9.14pm