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In reply to the discussion: Death of consul's daughter spurs Venezuela outcry [View all]reorg
(3,317 posts)Last edited Sun Mar 18, 2012, 11:48 PM - Edit history (1)
Who said these people didn't stop because they were fearing for their lives?
The only thing I have read is that the rich guy, the consul, thinks his son, when prompted to stop, may have failed to comply for fear of getting robbed. Perhaps not unreasonable if you drive a nice and shiny Chevrolet TrailBlazer in a third world country, I don't know.
OTOH, the police may have felt the pressure to do something about the high level of crime. Their task was to check vehicles and find out if they were stolen - in the case of some young dudes sitting in a rich dude's car perhaps not a completely unreasonable assumption either.
When the police asked the driver to stop, while three of them were pointing their guns at the vehicle, the driver backed off at high speed and drove away. Some shots were fired, nobody was hit. Two policemen on motorbikes started a chase, firing a few shots of which one hit a tire, and two went through a door and hit the girl (see source below).
The police officers were later arrested and are being investigated over use of excessive force. Perhaps we should wait and see what comes of this investigation before we get all hysterical about an incident that in no way concerns us, not being citizens of Maracaibo, Zulia, or any place else in Venezuela?
I don't think "checkpoint extortion" is "extremely common" in the "developing world", no. I was robbed of all my cash in Acapulco by the traffic police, but that was not at one of those checkpoints where they point guns at you (and I passed a lot of those, too). They simply came by claiming I had passed a red light. Not true, but they routinely do this to all foreigners driving a rental car, assuming, of course, we can easily afford to pay a few hundred dollars and that they should get their cut. In Ghana, I was occasionally stopped by the police under some or other phony pretext, but if you would talk to them, were friendly and handed over a pack of smokes, they'd let you go. Similar stuff has happened to me elsewhere, I was robbed a few times, in Quito at knifepoint in the open street, but I can't say I ever ran into anything really vicious which made me fear for my life.
El funcionario del Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas, Penales y Criminalísticas (Cicpc) reveló al medio web Noticias al Día que eran las diez de la noche (del viernes) cuando todo sucedió. El subcomisario Oswaldo Mendoza y el grupo que estaba desplegado en la zona norte de Maracaibo para contrarrestar el robo y hurto de vehículos detuvieron un auto Matíz entre el barrio Teotiste de Gallego y la urbanización Monte Bello. Era la primera acción que ejecutaron y minuciosamente chequeaban el auto.
Cuenta el policía que "en ese momento una camioneta TrailBlazer, gris, se acercaba de frente y fue allí donde comenzó la desgracia. Cuando la camioneta estaba cerca tres funcionarios sacaron sus armas y apuntaron hacia el vehículo. El conductor, en vez de detenerse aceleró hacia atrás rápidamente y los policías comenzaron a dispararles. Una sola bala alcanzó el parabrisas y el chofer giró su camioneta, se devolvió a toda velocidad y se acentuaron los disparos".
"Dos funcionarios en una moto iniciaron una persecución al tiempo que le disparaban. Uno de los proyectiles le estalló un caucho (neumático) trasero y dos entraron por la puerta trasera atravesando la lata. Estos dos últimos disparos fueron los que impactaron a la joven en la región occipital, nuca y el dedo meñique izquierdo", añade en su declaración.
En su relato el policía explica que Fernando, hermano de Karen y conductor de la TrailBlazer propiedad del cónsul, se detuvo al notar que su hermana estaba herida, en momentos donde los efectivos que habían disparado no sabían quienes eran los ocupantes del vehículo, aunque "rápidamente se enteraron que habían cometido un error".
http://www.emol.com/noticias/internacional/2012/03/18/531411/policia-arrestado-por-asesinato-de-hija-de-consul-en-maracaibo-fueron-cinco-los-que-dispararon.html