Tombs opened in Venezuela to identify riot victims

[Judi Lynn]

Sep 21, 5:12 PM EDT
Tombs opened in Venezuela to identify riot victims
By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER
Associated Press Writer

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Authorities began opening tombs Monday to identify the remains of dozens of people killed during riots more than two decades ago and look for evidence against police and soldiers responsible for slayings during the unrest. Most relatives of those who died in the 1989 riots, known as the "Caracazo," applaud the probe and hope investigators will be able to identify the victims and give their families a long-awaited opportunity for a proper burial.

Venezuelans across the political spectrum condemned the bloodshed at the time. But for President Hugo Chavez and many of his supporters, the massacre remains a symbol of injustice of past governments. The decision to open the tombs is one of multiple efforts by prosecutors in recent years to investigate cases of wrongdoing under Chavez's predecessors.

Some victims' families, while supporting the plan to examine the remains, fear what could be their final chance for emotional closure may be lost because the remains will be kept inside Venezuela's largest military base while forensic experts and anthropologists pick through bones and teeth.

Like other relatives, Aura Liscano doesn't like the idea of soldiers at Fort Tiuna safeguarding the remains of people who may have been killed by the armed forces or police. If there's still evidence, it could be erased," Liscano said.

Attorney General Luisa Ortega, overseeing the probe, said the warehouse inside the fort will be guarded by authorities from the prosecutor's office. "The remains of the victims will not be in the custody of the armed forces," Ortega said at a news conference.

More:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_VENEZUELA_RIOT_VICTIMS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-09-21-17-12-09

[Judi Lynn]

1. Photos of the El Caracazo massacre:

http://www.embavenez-us.org/pdfs/elcaracazoinpictures.pdf

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Page last updated at 05:27 GMT, Saturday, 18 July 2009 06:27 UK
Former Venezuela minister charged
By Will Grant
BBC News, Caracas

Venezuela's former defence minister is facing charges over his alleged role in violent clashes between police and protesters in Caracas in 1989. Italo del Valle Alliegro is accused of having played a role in ordering the violent repression of the protest.

The protests, sparked by a series of economic restructuring measures which included price rises on fuel and public transport, left hundreds dead. The retired general denies all the charges against him.

The street riots of February 1989 in the Venezuelan capital are known as the Caracazo. Government-imposed price rises, particularly on the cost of fuel, provoked several days of looting and clashes with the military which left an official figure of 274 people dead. Some groups say as many as 3,000 people were killed.

Very few public figures were put on trial over the violence and it has stained Venezuela's reputation ever since.

Since coming to power, Hugo Chavez - who was a lieutenant in the army at the time - has described the event as a massacre by the state, and ordered a tribunal to investigate the Caracazo.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8157088.stm

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Caracazo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The caracazo or sacudón is the name given to the wave of protests, riots and looting that occurred on 27 February 1989 in the Venezuelan capital Caracas and surrounding towns. The riots — the worst in Venezuelan history — resulted in a death toll of anywhere between 275 and 3,000 deaths,<1> mostly at the hands of security forces.

The word caracazo is the name of the city plus the suffix -azo, which implies a blow and/or magnitude. It could therefore be translated as something like "the Caracas smash" or "the big one in Caracas". Sacudón is from sacudir "to shake", and therefore means something along the lines of "the day that shook the country". (See Spanish nouns: Other suffixes.)

The words are pronounced {kaɾaˈkaso} and {sakuˈðon}, respectively.

Lead-up
In the context of the economic crisis that Venezuela had been going through since the early 1980s, President Carlos Andrés Pérez proposed to implement free-market reforms in his second presidential term (1989–1993), following the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Pérez belonged to the Acción Democrática (AD) party (social-democrat). This programme was known as the paquete — the "package".

Measures taken by Pérez included privatizing state companies, tax reform, reducing customs duties, and diminishing the role of the state in the economy. He also took measures to decentralize and modernize the Venezuelan political system by instituting the direct election of state governors (previously appointed by the President). But the most controversial part of this economic package was the elimination of the gas subsidies, which had long maintained domestic petrol prices far beneath their international levels (and indeed beneath the production costs of gasoline). Upon the elimination of the subsidy, petrol prices rose by as much 100%, and subsequently, the costs of public transportation rose by 30%.

Protests and rioting
The protests and rioting began in Guarenas (a town in Miranda State, some 30 km east of Caracas) on the morning of 27 February 1989,<2> due to a steep increase in transportation costs to Caracas. They quickly spread to the capital and other towns across the country. By the afternoon, there were disturbances in almost all districts of Caracas, with shops shut and public transport not running.

In the days that followed there was widespread international media coverage of the looting and destruction. For many months, there was discussion about how something so violent could occur in Venezuela.

Overwhelmed by the looting, the government declared a state of emergency, put the city under martial law and restored order albeit with the use of force. Some people used firearms for self-defence, to attack other civilians and/or to attack the military, but the number of dead soldiers and police came nowhere near the number of civilian deaths. The repression was particularly harsh in the cerros — the poor neighbourhoods of the capital.

The initial official pronouncements said 276 people had died; however, the subsequent discovery that the government had buried civilians in mass graves and not counted those deaths raised the estimates. Unofficial estimates of the death toll by pro-government site Hands off Venezuela go as high as 3000.<1>

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracazo