Venezuela: two in custody in murder of Bolivarian legislator
Venezuela: two in custody in murder of Bolivarian legislator
by: Emile Schepers
June 5 2015
Two people are now in custody in Venezuela in last October's savage murder of an outstanding young member of the Venezuelan Congress, Roberto Serra, and his companion. Venezuelan authorities say that the murder is linked to right wing paramilitary circles close to former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
On October 1 last year, Robert Serra was murdered in his apartment in Caracas, along with Maria Herrera, his companion and political helper. Video surveillance cameras showed a group of eight people gaining access to his apartment, where they first overcame and killed Herrera and then Serra. The murders were acts of unbelievable sadism. Such brutality does not occur in the vast majority of murders in Venezuela or anywhere; it is generally the mark of a special act of hatred. Venezuelan authorities immediately suspected that the crime was politically motivated.
At just 27 years of age, Serra, a protégé of former President Hugo Chavez and a rising star in his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), had been in charge of a legislative committee investigating the activities of right wing paramilitary groups on the Colombian side of the Venezuela-Colombia border for possible anti-Venezuela actions. Specifically, he had focused on Lorent Saleh, a Venezuelan linked to last year's violent disturbances in Caracas and other Venezuelan cities. Salah is now in custody in Venezuela, accused of terroristic plotting, after having been extradited to Venezuela by Colombia.
The arrest in Venezuela on June 3 of Julio Cesar Velez Gonzalez, announced by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, actually is on the basis of an Interpol warrant requested by the Colombian government, and is for the murder of Velez's wife in 2010. But the Venezuelan authorities wanted Velez for other reasons. They accuse him of financing the Velez-Hernandez murder.
Until he went on the lam because of the murder of his wife, Velez Gonzalez had been a businessman and city councilor in the town of Cucuta, Colombia. In politics, he was a close ally of Uribe. His business activities had included running a chain of exchange houses which Venezuela claims were used for money laundering activities that have seriously damaged the Venezuelan economy.
More:
http://peoplesworld.org/venezuela-two-in-custody-in-murder-of-bolivarian-legislator/
