Student opposition leader gunned down in Venezuela

[Bacchus39]

Student opposition leader gunned down in Venezuela



CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan authorities are investigating the fatal shooting of a student leader who helped organize protests against constitutional amendments proposed by President Hugo Chavez.

Julio Soto, a student leader at the University of Zulia, was killed Wednesday by unidentified gunmen in the western city of Maracaibo.

Local Police Chief Jose Gonzalez said he believes Soto was specifically targeted because the assailants sprayed his vehicle with gunfire and then fled without taking anything.

But Justice Minister Tarek El Aissami said federal authorities have not yet determined if the killing was a politically motivated hit.

Soto was a member of the Copei opposition party. Voters rejected Chavez's proposed reforms in December.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081002/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_venezuela_student_killed;_ylt=AibfRJzPDEhLC5aRGmj7Vkq3IxIF

[struggle4progress]

1. Cilia Flores llamó a no politizar asesinato de estudiante en Zulia

... La presidenta de la Asamblea Nacional diputada Cilia Flores, condenó este miércoles por la noche, el asesinato del estudiante Julio Soto, presidente de la Federación de Centros Universitarios (FCU) de la Universidad del Zulia (LUZ) ... Cilia Flores igualmente rechazó el uso de este crimen con fines políticos por parte de personas que definió como “vampiros”. “El que lo haga será un vampiro y rechazo por todo el pueblo” ... Por otra parte Cilia Flores hizo un llamado a los dirigentes políticos, en especial a los estudiantes de todo el país, a que acompañen a los familiares de Julio Soto en su dolor y en su deseo de hacer justicia. También llamó a que no realicen acciones que entorpezcan las investigaciones y lleven a la impunidad del crimen. “Los dirigentes políticos deben actuar con responsabilidad” ... http://www.antv.gob.ve/NoticiasANTV/noticia.asp?id=14857

[Bacchus39]

2. translation: please don't politicize this political hit

correct??

[EFerrari]

3. Right, and to stand with the mourners in their pain and in order

to see justice done.

[struggle4progress]

4. Consider providing any evidence whatsoever for your interpretation:

I am no expert on Zulia and don't know what happened. But it is easy to frame hypotheses from available material. For example, photos of Soto's new truck with numerous 9mm bullet holes in the front window are available. One or more of his passengers was also injured. Shots through the front window suggest the shooters were aiming at the front seat passenger or driver. But nothing I am aware of clarifies motive: is there credible reason to believe that Soto was targeted for his political views, or could the shooters have had some other intent in targeting the vehicle; for example, is it possible that Soto died in a drug-related hit, possibly as a result of mistaken identity? The latter is at least possible, as Maracaibo has been a popular international transhipment point for cocaine for many years

Student leader gunned down in Maracaibo
... Soto, who was driving his Trail Blazer truck, was accompanied by four students of Punto Fijo's LUZ unit ... Soto, 31, had just attended a swearing ceremony of the new authorities of LUZ. He was intercepted by at least two heavily armed men, according to José González, the chief of the local police department ... One of the .. students who accompanied Soto was injured. Hernán Chirinos, the president of Punto Fijo's LUZ student union was shot in one of his legs. According to González, two 9-mm weapons were used in the incident ... http://english.eluniversal.com/2008/10/02/en_pol_esp_student-leader-gunne_02A2037527.shtml

Opposition student leader killed in Venezuela
Xinhua News Agency
October 2, 2008
The Venezuelan government has ordered an investigation into the fatal shooting of an opposition student leader, Interior and Justice Minister Tarek El Aissami said Wednesday. The Prosecutor General's Office put two special prosecutors in charge of the investigation ... Several other students who were with Soto at that time were injured ... http://www.china.org.cn/international/news/2008-10/02/content_16560895.htm

Drug-trafficking suspect will be tried in Venezuela
March 11, 2008
... Hermagoras Gonzalez Polanco ..., arrested over the weekend in Venezuela by the nation’s intelligence police force, will be tried in Venezuela on drug trafficking, money laundering and false identity charges, Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin said at a news conference Monday. Gonzalez, 48, has been indicted in New Jersey and New York federal courts on drug trafficking charges and is wanted in Colombia on suspicion of murder ... Gonzalez, whose 230-pound, 5-foot-5-inch frame earned him the nickname “Gordito,” or Fatso, was arrested Saturday at his ranch in Caja Seca, at the southern end of Lake Maracaibo ... He was born in the Guajiran border town of Maicao in Colombia, where dealing in contraband is a way of life for many. Gonzalez is believed to have turned to crime while serving in the so-called Guajira Peasants’ Self-Defense paramilitary and to have moved to Venezuela to manage the militia’s drugs-for-arms trade ... http://articles.latimes.com/2008/mar/11/world/fg-gordito11

Colombia's New Generation of Paramilitaries Operates on Both Sides of Venezuelan Border
Posted by Dan Feder - December 19, 2007 at 7:44 am
... a report this week in a Venezuelan newspaper highlights the fact that .. Colombia’s paramilitary nightmare not ended .. has .. encroached onto its neighbor’s land and become a part of politics there ... The northwestern Venezuelan border states of Zulia and Táchira have become an important base of operations for the so-called “emergent groups,” most famously the network known as the “Black Eagles.” They are demobilized paramilitaries who have picked up their weapons again, recruited new soldiers and have no intention of giving up their political and criminal empire. On December 16, the Maracaibo, Zulia daily newspaper Panorama cited “sources trusted by both the Colombian and Venezuelan military” in a report claiming Maracaibo to be the “spearhead” for paramilitaries in the country. It speaks of a Black Eagles leader who goes by the nom de guerre “Salomón,” and who has inherited what remains of the feared warlord Jorge 40’s organization. Jorge 40, commander of the AUC’s Northern Bloc, was responsible for countless murders and massacres of campesinos, indigenous people and others along Colombia’s Atlantic coast ... http://narcosphere.narconews.com/node/2045

Venezuelan, Dominican agents seize 585 kilos of cocaine
SANTO DOMINGO.- The Venezuelan authorities alerted to a drug shipment which arrived in Punta Caucedo Port, Boca Chica yesterday, aboard a ship "Doris" ... This .. operation was carried out jointly by the Venezuela authorities, the Customs and Drugs Control agencies, and the Dominican Navy. The drugs, which came from Maracaibo, Venezuela, and were headed to Spain, was found in an oil tank in container #CLHU392245-5, in the middle of the cargo hold, which made it difficult to locate ... http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2007/12/5/26293/Venezuelan-Dominican-agents-seize-585-kilos-of-cocaine

83 kilograms of cocaine were found during a random search of the vessel
Halifax Daily News, Jul 1, 2004
HALIFAX -- An underwater camera is credited with what's described as the fluke discovery of an attempt to smuggle millions of dollars in cocaine on a cargo ship named after the prime minister's wife and operated by the company he once controlled. Authorities suggest organized crime is behind an attempt to transport cocaine using the Sheila Ann, a ship operated by Canada Steamship Lines, the company Prime Minister Paul Martin transferred control of to his three sons last year. Two duffel bags stuffed with 83 kilograms of cocaine were found early Wednesday during a random search of the vessel, which was carrying coal from Venezuela to Sydney for Nova Scotia Power. The camera discovered the drugs in a grate attached to the bottom of the ship ... Martine Malka, a spokeswoman for Canada Steamship Lines, said the packages must have been smuggled in from Maracaibo, Venezuela, the vessel's last stop before Sydney. She said four bolts holding the underwater grate to the bottom of the ship were removed sometime before the vessel docked, then replaced after the packages were hidden inside ... ``The only way this could have been done is by divers underwater'' ... http://www.orwelltoday.com/cocainecanadapm.shtml

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 2000
"OPERATION JOURNEY" DISMANTLES COLOMBIAN ORGANIZATION THAT SHIPPED COCAINE TO 12 NATIONS
NEARLY 25 TONS OF COCAINE SEIZED
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- ... A Colombian citizen, De La Vega was arrested in Maracaibo, Venezuela, on Aug. 16, and turned over to U.S. custody ... http://www.customs.gov/hot-new/pressrel/2000/0826-00.htm

[Bacchus39]

5. why would I need evidence for a translation???

it says what it says. the Chavez lackeys are telling people not to politicize what appears to be a political murder. there is no information regarding his ties to drug trafficking but there is the fact that he was a student leader that organized efforts to defeat Chavez's proposals, successfully. the other information you posted is irrelevant and meaningless in this context.

[EFerrari]

6. The two opposition groups, Primero Justicia and Un Tiempo Nuevo

were in conflict WITH EACH OTHER. So while you blame Chavez, which is laughable, something else entirely is going on.

[struggle4progress]

7. Because you know "asesinato" as commonly used simply means "murder"?

So your "translation" is actually nothing like a translation ...

Or because you know there's really no evidence that Chavez or his supporters are murdering the opposition?
Venezuela in recent years has had almost no history of political assassination. Look, for example, through the long (236 page) recent "Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela" and see if there's any evidence that such a thing is happening. What form has political violence in Venezuela taken in recent years? A number of people died during riots in the wake of the Carmona coup; a state prosecutor investigating the coup was murdered by a car bomb a few years later. And, as has been too common in Latin America for too long, indigenous peasants seeking land reform are regularly murdered with impunity, apparently by agents of wealthy landholders

Again: if you have any evidence that this was a political murder, do feel free to post it

<Nov 2004>

A remote-controlled car bomb killed the state prosecutor preparing to press charges against supporters of a short-lived 2002 coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, officials said Friday. The killing of Danilo Anderson, 38, stirred concern that a fresh wave of violence could beset this country, the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter and the United States’ biggest supplier in the Western Hemisphere. Anderson was traveling through the Los Chaguaramos district of Caracas, the capital, around midnight Thursday when his sport utility vehicle exploded. His charred body was recovered from the vehicle and identified at the city morgue early Friday, police at the scene reported. The prosecutor had been compiling evidence against nearly 400 opposition activists who signed a declaration of loyalty to Pedro Carmona, who served two days as interim president in April 2002 before a popular revolt reinstated Chavez ...

http://articles.latimes.com/2004/nov/20/world/fg-venezuela20

Attorney General Announces Prosecutions in Political Murder are Suspended
December 19th 2006, by Steven Mather - Venezuelanalysis.com

... Of the five suspects, the case of Cuban dissident Salvador Romani was dismissed. Those of the co-owner of the Globovision television channel, Nelson Mezerhane, of Ex-General Eugenio Añez Núñez, of ex-police officer Fernando Jesús Moreno Palmar, and of the journalist Patricia Poleo have been suspended. The Attorney General’s Office believes that "there is not enough clear and convincing evidence in connection with the crime that resulted in the death of public prosecutor Danilo Anderson." But the cases of the last three could be reopened. Regarding the last suspect, Patricia Poleo, who has fled the country and is currently believed to be in Miami, Rodríguez said, "The proceedings in connection with her should wait until the Venezuelan legal formalities are met to press the relevant charges as Venezuelan law expressly prohibits prosecution in absentia." Charges can't be brought against Poleo until she returns to Venezuela. Rodríguez added that the only thing that can be done is to implement the necessary mechanisms for her search and arrest ...

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/2144

Venezuela's Peasant Leaders Demand Justice and Protection
July 13th 2005, by Jonah Gindin – Venezuelanalysis.com

Since the Venezuelan government passed a controversial land reform law in 2001, conflicts between land reform activists and land-owners have resulted in at least 150 assassinations of campesinos, and possibly more. Since January, 2005 when the land reform initiative was given a new push by President Hugo Chávez, violence in the countryside has escalated further. Claudia Jardim, a journalist who produces a special bi-monthly documentary on the country’s land reform process says the political murder-rate in the countryside has jumped to an estimated one peasant leader per week since January ... The CANEZ also submitted a document to the Attorney General complete with evidence linking specific latifundistas—landowners—to the violence. Campesino leader and recent victim of an attempted assassination, Braulio Alvarez, was on hand during the protest and afterwards, where he was interviewed on state television channel 8. According to Alvarez, some of the richest landowning families in Zulia, Cojedes and Yaracuy .. are responsible for contracting killers to rid them of bothersome peasant leaders ...

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/1242

[EFerrari]

8. It looks like it could have been a political murder and that Chavistas were not involved at all.

Look at this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3521992&mesg_id=3523540

ETA: These reactionary posts always wind up teaching me something. Not what they aim to, at all, but forwarding my understanding of Venezuela.

[struggle4progress]

9. Thanx!

[EFerrari]

10. Thank our friend Bacchus39 for the thread.

:)

[Bacchus39]

11. oh my goodness, we have two comments from a blog site. investigation closed!!!

good work. you should go to work for Chavez. or wait, you already do.

[EFerrari]

12. Waste of time. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

13. While mocking Satyagrahi's contributions here, you opted not to acknowledge his additional info:

Satyagrahi (235 posts) Thu Oct-02-08 08:33 PM
Response to Reply #33
56. Julio Soto allegedly involved with local "ticket mafia".
Soto was the president of the Federación de Centro de Estudiantes (FCU), and the FCU is in charge of distributing public transport tickets to more than 85.000 students in Zulia. Julio Soto was allegedly involved with a "ticket mafia" of 50-100 students and local officials that sold the tickets instead of distributing them:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3521992#3524014

This poster has found more info. on this story which clearly needs to be considered. It's post #56.

His first story is probably not more comments from a blog site. It was published in El Nacional. He has another which was taken from a university publication. Also not from a blog site.

I doubt you'd want to try to devaluate those sources.

[Judi Lynn]

14. More on this schoolboy, from a Spanish article, google translated:

Opined: What lies behind the murder of Julio Soto?
Thursday October 2, 2008

10:17 AM | The deplorable death of a student leader Julio Soto is behind a series of Dimes and forth to entangle the assumptions and divided opinions.

The Panorama newspaper, devoted an entire page to the case of crime committed yesterday against Julio Soto, president of the FCU at the University of Zulia. It highlights that Soto had previously received constant death threats. He was linked with the scam of tickets student at the University of Zulia, his home had been raided and that is why he had been living in different hotels in the city.

By knowing the fact that on the afternoon of Wednesday, the Interior and Justice Minister, Tarek The Aissami, repudiated this afternoon the assassination of the president of the FCU of light, Julio Soto, and indicated that it had ordered the evacuation of a committee of the ICCP to advance the investigations. It also called for peace and not to use this fact to generate violence.

During these statements, the anchor of VTV who interviewed the minister suggested in a question whether the killing of student leader could be the result of so-called acts of violence by opposition groups:

Quote:
Anchor VTV: You have some information of how the student is in the west, especially when we understand that this student, Julio Soto, president of the FCU, representing an opposition political party and not denied to anyone that students of opposition have been promoting acts that go against the laws and tranquility in Venezuela. How is the environment (...) in the west of the country, specifically in Maracaibo?

The minister Aissami: Well, regardless whether you are a student leader of the opposition, here is an objective fact is that a young Venezuelan was killed (...) a Venezuelan leader, a student leader (...)

On the other hand, in public forums on the Internet Watch forums linking the killing as a response to the killing of student leader of Justice First, Flavia Araujo, murdered on November 2 of 2007 and also belongs to the University of Zulia.

At that time, investigations of the CICPC clarified that what really happened was a clash between armed bands of the political party Justice First and A New Time. Flavia Araujo was Justice First and Julio Soto was owned by the parties and Copei A New Time.

It is noteworthy that representatives of the Executive and Legislative national demand that the matter not be politicized and that is wait until the investigation "until its last consequences"

Original story:
http://www.cadenaglobal.com/noticias/default.asp?not=192665&sec=77

Some google translated comments after the story from the same site:

Ramon Rivero
4/10/2008
5:17:24 AM
Here there are several things that draw attention as it is possible that a student has one of the most luxurious and expensive pickups on the market. because that relentlessness because until now no opposition displayed by his media power to blame the government here must be another case where the invisible hand but we all know the philosopher of Zulia


Pedro Betancourt
3/10/2008
11:11:34 PM
Let's be objective: To whom it benefits the death of this Venezuelan? If students have been put to protest the killing who had said that they were taking advantage to do guarimba already hinted Al Assaimi? If they had been trained and these disorders were widespread throughout the country and there had been any need to declare a state of emergency or anything like that who would have benefited? Those who are concerned the matter of the briefcase they would like to see him outside of the newscasts and newspapers Venezuela and the world? If a maneuver as the magnisimio and the attempted coup did not have enough impact to make the case and the election of 23n of the news to whom it had happened to launch another red rag to see if they had better luck Why is it that some Venezuelans believe that in view of the calm of the students for failing to hit the red cloth of the assassination has thrown a third red scarf, which is good news of the arrest Baduel Why is it that most of the Venezuelans think the robolución going to lose the majority of the governorships and mayoralties if people come to vote and were left to defend their votes? questions that makes a ....


Rodolfo Rodriguez Adames
3/10/2008
9:26:29 PM
We should not rush to issue opinions to the first exchange. There is something behind all this a student who was admitted to a University at 18 and arrives at the 31 and has not graduated only emphasized in political activities in light to become president of the Federation of University Centers . I feel sorry for his parents who have waited so long to see her son graduate and receive it today without graduating and with more than 10 bullets in his body was regrettable. But as between heaven and earth there is nothing hidden and explained that the young old student enjoying the sweet life marabina of late-model pickup trucks with luxury apartments where their bacchanal toward Rumors True or Who Knows? Contrary to the ideals of Mr politicians. Governor Manuel Rosales who apparently is the boss who controls everything in this state unless the Federation said that was a sin in Zulia. We comment on these matters similar passage of the medium business student and sabotage elections in the NOEC university. There are many questions. We hope the authorities already on the case. Sr. Minister of Justice and Police Corps is the case in their hands has to be responsible and accountable for this heinous act. You can not go unpunished.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Looks as if these Colombians have a different view of this cherub from that expressed by our corporate media.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Venezuela: 3 suspects in student's killing

Venezuela: 3 suspects in student's killing
The Associated Press
Published: October 6, 2008



CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuelan police have identified three suspects in the killing of a student leader who helped organize protests against a constitutional rewrite proposed by President Hugo Chavez.

Justice Minister Tarek El Aissami says authorities are close to clarifying the Oct. 1 shooting death of University of Zulia student Julio Soto.

El Aissami said Monday that "the investigation has advanced significantly." He did not elaborate on the suspects' alleged involvement in the killing.

Some government opponents believe that Soto was the victim of a politically motivated contract killing. They note that assailants sprayed his vehicle with gunfire and then fled without taking anything.

Soto was a member of the Copei opposition party.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/06/news/LT-Venezuela-Student-Killed.php



Julio Soto



The mourners of this terrible event.