This past Tuesday, the Venezuelan National Assembly passed new legislation reforming the country’s laws on organised crime and terrorism. The legislation widens the number of crimes under its competence and also increases maximum sentences for offenses.
On Monday, the Venezuelan Ministry of Public Affaire issued an additional request for the capture of known terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. While Venezuelan authorities are still waiting for the United States to act on a 2005 extradition request to try Carriles for his involvement in the 1976 downing of a commercial airliner, killing all 73 people on board, this week’s request comes alter Venezuelan prosecutors uncovered his role in, “acts of torture, violation of international laws, illegal detention and physical abuse of prisoners” during his time at the now defunct Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP).
This Friday the Venezuelan government formally “rejected” a U.S. State Department antiterrorism report issued a day earlier, describing the document as “plagued with false affirmations, political preconceptions, and veiled threats.”
On Wednesday Venezuela’s courts granted a provisional release to Alejandro Peña Esclusa, the radical opposition figure charged with hiding explosives in his home as part of plans to destabilize the country before last year’s parliamentary elections.
This Tuesday the Venezuelan National Assembly and the Foreign Relations Ministry rejected U.S. Congressman Connie Mack’s claims that Venezuela was a “state sponsor of terrorism”.
The United States carries out actions “that hinder civic, political, economic and cultural rights of the peoples,” stressed the representative of Venezuela to the United Nations, Jorge Valero, during his speech at the International Conference Against Terrorism, held in Tehran, Iran, this Sunday.
Cuban-American Attorney Jose Pertierra spoke with Cuban and foreign journalists on Thursday at the office of the Cuban Journalists Association (UPEC) in Havana about his experiences in El Paso, Texas, during the trial against terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.
The Venezuelan police have apprehended nine people in connection with the torching of a government office in the western state of Zulia earlier this month and have issued arrest warrants for four others believed to be behind the criminal act that left in ashes the regional headquarters of the National Land Institute (INTI).
The statements of Francisco Chávez Abarca and the plans against Venezuela expose the continuation of the terrorist actions against Cuba and raise new questions on the complicity of the CIA, CANF, Posada Carriles and the anti-Cuban members of Congress.
By Deisy Francis Mexidor, Marina Menendez - Correo Del Orinoco International, Oct 7th 2010
The most dangerous Latin American terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles, is still residing freely in the United States where he’s only being accused of immigration violations. However, the detention last July 1st of one of his accomplices, Salvadoran Francisco Chavez Abarca, must cause concern for Posada because of what this man knows and what he has done.
