Families demand answers about '89 Venezuela massacre victims

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Saturday, 03.07.09
Families demand answers about '89 Venezuela massacre victims

As the anniversary of the 1989 Caracazo massacre approaches, memories of the killings are still fresh in relatives' minds as they push Hugo Chávez's government for answers and closure.



Aura Liscano, left, and Hilda Perez, right, hold
photos of Venezuelans who died on February 27,
1989. Both women lost relatives in the massacre.
GABRIEL OSORIO/FREELANCER

Special to The Miami Herald
CARACAS -- It took years for Aura Liscano to learn the truth about her brother's death.

Hours after going out to play basketball and dominoes in the Cota 905 district where the family still lives, he was gunned down in one of the worst massacres in recent Latin American history.

''There was a room at the morgue full of corpses,'' said Liscano, recalling her family's search for her brother, 21-year-old José Miguel.

``Some were hung up like sides of beef. My older brother had to search through a pile of bodies four or five high, but José Miguel wasn't there.''

This week marks the 20th anniversary of the Caracazo, a time when Liscano joined dozens of distraught relatives trying to locate loved ones killed after then Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez declared a state of emergency to deal with riots and looting sparked by a package of austerity measures.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/937108.html

(It is commonly believed the actual number of murdered Venezuelans was 3,000, and it has been believed to be that high for many years. Don't know WHY the Miami Herald has chosen to represent the number as being so much lower. The government actually pushed some of the victims into a mass grave with bull dozers.

The President, Carlos Andres Perez, who created this massacre DOES keep a home in Miami, as well as New York.



Former Venezuelan President
Carlos Andres Perez during a
party in his honor celebrated
in Miami.
Credit: Conexiones

http://cache.daylife.com.nyud.net:8090/imageserve/00nc0Pm2kd7hr/610x.jpg

8 months ago: Cecilia Matos, wife of Venezuela's former President Carlos
Andres Perez, holds up a family picture in her Miami condo, Tuesday, June 17, 2008.

He was impeached for corruption. Cecilia Matos was his secretary/mistress at the time of El Caracazo massacre.