Chávez: Coup figures could get amnesty

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Fri, Nov. 12, 2004

VENEZUELA


Chávez: Coup figures could get amnesty

The chief suspects in Venezuela's brief 2002 coup could receive amnesty, but investigations first must be completed, President Hugo Chávez, the coup's target, has said.


CARACAS - (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said he would consider granting an amnesty for alleged leaders of a short-lived 2002 coup but would wait until investigations into the alleged roles played by government opponents in the failed putsch have been concluded.

''I would think about it . . . but it would have to happen after responsibilities have been determined,'' Chávez told the state-run television channel shortly before midnight Wednesday.

State prosecutors are currently investigating roughly 400 government adversaries -- including retired military officers, clergymen and opposition politicians -- who signed a decree recognizing business leader Pedro Carmona as interim president during the botched coup.
(snip)

None of those who signed the decree have gone to trial, and many have yet to be questioned by prosecutors.
(snip)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/10161191.htm
(Free registration is required)

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Adding article I just discovered in the Miami Herald, which is not nationally important, but simply worth noting:

Posted on Fri, Nov. 12, 2004

Pinellas prosecutor charged with drunken driving in Tampa
Associated Press

TAMPA, Fla. - A Pinellas County prosecutor known for aggressively pursuing drunken driving cases was charged with DUI after police said they stopped her with three children in her car.

Lydia Dempsey Wardell, 37, was arrested Wednesday near her Tampa home because she had a blood-alcohol level of 0.23 percent, nearly three times the legal limit in Florida, police said.

She was unavailable for comment Thursday, when she was released on $500 bail.

"She made a mistake," said Bruce Bartlett, Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe's chief assistant. "She's aware of that. She's extremely remorseful about her conduct and knows it's not acceptable and is ready to pay the consequences."

Bartlett said Wardell was on her way to pick up her son when she was arrested.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/breaking_news/10160557.htm
(Free registration is required.)

Damned irritating article, isn't it? From the St. Petersburg Times:

In Pinellas, prosecutors including Wardell often charge DUI defendants with felony child neglect when someone drives under the influence with children in the car, as Wardell is accused of doing.

Wardell does not face that charge in Hillsborough, and it was not immediately clear whether Tampa police considered a more serious charge against Wardell.

"The irony of the situation is that she is a very hard-nosed prosecutor on these kind of cases," Bartlett said. "She is very reluctant to ever reduce charges or make any deal on a DUI. She's tough as nails and has a lot of enemies in defense lawyers because of her positions on these type of cases."
(snip)

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/11/12/Tampabay/Pinellas_prosecutor_c.shtml

[Zhade]

1. What a thug!

</ignorance>

[ret5hd]

2. amnesty?...

what self-respecting pinko-commie baby-eating dictator would ever give those sworn to deposing him amnesty? don't tell me the press has been telling me lies about him.

[Minstrel Boy]

3. He's a monnnnnster! Just like Saddam - worse!!!

That must be why there are no pictures of Mr Rumsfeld shaking his hand.

[Billy Burnett]

4. What? No firing squads for the terrorists/coupsters?

Chavez is a girly man. ;)

--


:hi:

[bemildred]

5. Smart man.

The carrot AND the stick.
The truth will be told, but you may be allowed to walk if you shape up.