Venezuela: Pro-Govt Supporters Being Killed in Record Numbers

[Judi Lynn]

30 May 2016 - 10:10 AM

Venezuela: Pro-Govt Supporters Being Killed in Record Numbers

Venezuelan authorities are conducting an internal investigation into the assassination of retired Army Major General Felix Velasquez, which is the latest case in a surge of killings targeting pro-government public officials and activists. In recent months, Western mainstream media outlets have remained silent regarding the violence waged against government supporters, left-wing activists and public servants, which many believe is an attempt to undermine the future of the Chavista movement in the country.

High Profile Assassinations

May 2016: Retired Venezuelan Army Major General Felix Velasquez was shot dead while driving his car in Caracas. Venezuelan police are investigating the crime to clarify the true motives of the assassination. So far, two suspects have been detained. According to Interior Minister Gustavo Gonzalez Lopez, the two suspects are policemen from the opposition-held Caracas borough of Chacao.

March 2016: Marco Tulio Carrillo was “shot repeatedly” outside his home in Trujillo. Carrillo was the mayor of the La Ceiba municipality, and a member of President Nicolas Maduro's United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). Two suspects have been arrested to due their involvement with the murder.

March 2016: Socialist legislator Cesar Vera was shot in Tachira state. Vera was a member of the Great Patriotic Pole, a political coalition of parties aligned with the PSUV. A member of a Colombian paramilitary group was arrested in connection to the murder.

March 2016: Two Venezuelan police personnel were killed after a protest in a Tachira university turned deadly.

March 2016: Haitian-Venezuelan political leader and solidarity activist Fritz Saint Louis, 54, was shot dead in his home by masked gunman on Saturday evening.

January 2016: The well-respected journalist and prominent Chavista Ricardo Duran was murdered outside his home in Caracas. One suspect was arrested in connection to his murder.

More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/Venezuela-Pro-Govt-Supporters-Being-Killed-in-Record-Numbers-20160530-0006.html

[Judi Lynn]

2. Venezuela: Two police suspected of killing ex-general

Venezuela: Two police suspected of killing ex-general

May Tuesday 31st 2016
posted by James Tweedie in World

Gen Velasquez gunned down on Saturday

TWO of four suspects in the murder of a retired Venezuelan general have been identified as police from an opposition-controlled district of the capital.

Major General Felix Velasquez was gunned down in front of his five-year-old granddaughter on Saturday by two men on a motorcycle in the Santa Monica district of Caracas.

He had been a senior commander in the Bolivarian National Militia, a popular reserve force founded by late president Hugo Chavez and an important pillar of Venezuela’s budding socialist revolution.

President Nicolas Maduro attended the general’s funeral yesterday at Fort Tiuna in Caracas.

Interior, Justice and Peace Minister Gustavo Gonzalez said on Sunday that of the four suspects detained so far, two were police officers from the wealthy Chacao district, a hotbed of violent opposition protests against the United Socialist Party government. He told Venezolana de Television that the assassination was staged to look like a robbery.

Mr Gonzalez said the pair “acted in combination with a criminal gang dedicated to homicide and contract killings.”

More:
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-3cde-Venezuela-Two-police-suspected-of-killing-ex-general#.V0zpPOT2aYE