Prosecutor
investigating anti-Chavez coup killed in terrorist attack
By
Jorge Martin
Nov 19, 2004
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The explosion of two bombs in his car
took the life of 38-year old State Prosecutor Danilo Anderson, late on
Thursday night in Caracas, Venezuela. The terrorist attack took place at
11.50 pm in Los Chaguaramos, in south east Caracas, where Danilo Anderson
was coming away from evening classes he was attending at the Bolivarian
University.
From his role as State Prosecutor Danilo
Anderson had waged a tireless struggle to get the leaders of the
opposition prosecuted for the crimes they have committed and particularly
for the military coup they organised on April 11th 2002.
In August 2002, Venezuela's Supreme
Court ruled that in Venezuela there had been no coup d'etat. As amazing as
this ruling can seem, the Court decided that there had instead been a
"vacuum of power", because Chavez had "resigned" (in
reality he had given himself up when the coup organisers threatened to
bomb the presidential Palace!), and that this "vacuum" had to be
filled somehow and... Pedro Carmona happened to pass by and filled the
vacuum of power! This surreal ruling prevented any action from being taken
against those involved in the military coup for two years. Its main public
figure, Pedro Carmona, was put under house arrest from which he fled to a
comfortable exile in Colombia and Miami, and from where he has continued
to pull the strings of the reactionary conspiracy to remove Chavez from
power and put an end to Venezuela's Bolivarian revolution.
In spite of the scandalous ruling of the
Supreme Court, recently Danilo Anderson had started a number of legal
cases to bring the opposition leaders responsible for the coup before the
courts. At the end of October he presented charges of conspiracy to commit
homicide against former Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena, Metropolitan Police
(PM) Commander Lazaro Forero and Public Security secretary Henry Vivas,
"for the (eve of the coup d'etat) events of April 11, 2002,
in which 20 people died and 87 were injured on the Avenida Baralt."
None of them turned up to face the charges and the judge issued arrest
warrants against Pena and the others and also orders preventing the three
of them from leaving the country.
He also pressed charges against Capriles
Radonsky, the opposition mayor of Baruta, Caracas, for his role in the
siege of the Cuban embassy during the coup. He was also working closely in
the case against the SUMATE directors, for receiving money from the US
National Endowment for Democracy and plotting to overthrow Chavez.
At the same time Anderson presented
charges for conspiracy and civil rebellion against the 400 people who were
present at the swearing in ceremony of coup installed
"president" Pedro Carmona (popularly known as Pedro "the
brief" since his coup collapsed in less than 48 hours, defeated by
the mass mobilisation of the people of Venezuela). Danilo used the
attendance book for that ceremony, which took place on April 12, 2002, to
cite everybody who had signed it as part of the conspiracy. This list
reads like a "who's who" of Venezuela's oligarchy. They were all
there: the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, the owners of the media,
industry and banks, the corrupt and un-elected leadership of the CTV trade
unions, etc.
Danilo Anderson's investigation
represented a severe blow against Venezuela's oligarchy and was a serious
attempt to put an end to impunity for those who have tried by all means
(legal and illegal) to put an end to Venezuela's Bolivarian revolution.
His investigations mean that all those leaders of Venezuela's reactionary
opposition who are now pretending to be nice and democratic would be
exposed. This is the case for instance with the current leader of
Fedecamaras, Albis Munoz, the owners of the main private media outlets,
the current leaders of the CTV, etc. As we have argued for a long time,
these people should be in jail, and should not walk free and be left to
continue to organise conspiracies to put an end to the revolution.
The death of Anderson clearly benefits
all these people, and that is where the investigation into his
assassination should point to. Because of the nature of his
investigations, Danilo had already been the object of all sorts of
threats. He was prominently displayed by the extremely reactionary
Reconocelos web
site which aims to "expose" leaders and activists
of the Bolivarian revolution. Danilo was also attacked by two opposition
supporters while shopping in the well-known Sambil mall in October.
A section of the Venezuelan opposition,
having been defeated on three separate occasions in their attempts to
topple Chavez, has increasingly resorted to death threats. Former
president Carlos Andres Perez declared openly that Chavez should be
"killed like a dog".
A rally has been called outside of the
State Prosecutor's office for this afternoon.
It is quite clear from their track
record that the Venezuelan oligarchy will not stop at anything in their
attempts to overthrow the Chavez government, put an end to the
revolutionary movement of the masses and maintain their privileges. The
revolutionary movement, which has proven on numerous occasions that it has
the overwhelming support of the majority of the Venezuelan people, should
act accordingly.
The only way to defend the revolution is
by going on the offensive and wresting from the oligarchy all the levers
of power that they still have. The property of all those involved in the
April coup should be confiscated and put under the democratic control of
the workers and the people of Venezuela. Otherwise they will continue to
use their positions of power in the economy, within the judiciary, in the
media, etc. to conspire to drown the revolutionary movement in blood.
From the Hands Off Venezuela Campaign we
offer once again our support to the Bolivarian revolution. En
Venezuela, no pasaran!
Bulatlat
Past Alternative Readers
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