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Venezuelan Attorney General Comes Under Fire Printer friendly page Print This
By Rachael Boothroyd Rojas, venezuelanalysis with Intro by Les Blough, Axis of Logic
Libya360
Sunday, May 28, 2017

Editor's Introduction
When we see Venezuela’s Attorney General Luisa Ortega refusing to prosecute many arrested for violent attacks by the Venezuelan opposition it is difficult to escape the conclusion that she has abandoned her official duties and joined the current US-funded attempt to overthrow the government, the 4th such attempt in 15 years (2002, 2003, 2014, 2017).

Individuals arrested for violence, including widespread arson, attacks on government supporters, resulting in deaths and injuries, on city parks, public buildings, schools, food distribution trucks and facilities, medical clinics and hospitals, including those arrested for burning buses and police vehicles and attacking police and members of the National Guard, are the types of individuals she has turned back into the streets to continue their mayhem. Ortega also abandoned her responsibility as an unbiased prosecutor when she began to openly state her political views to the media accusing the government of oppression.

These accusations dovetail perfectly with media propaganda and bias against the government that has used police and National Guard for controlling violent demonstrations, including using means approved by the UN Human Rights Commission of tear gas, water cannons, and rubber bullets. In fact, President Maduro gave the order to ensure that no security forces were armed with deadly weapons in the streets and has also banned the use of rubber bullets.

Remember that such violence is occurring in municipalities run by opposition mayors, especially in prosperous eastern Caracas, but receives total media attention to give the impression that the country is in complete chaos. This is far from the truth as the “demonstrators” are paid thugs.

I have personally watched and photographed about a  thousand opposition thugs cut down trees, destroy a construction site, and attack a line of the Bolivarian National Guardsmen (GNB) who stood for hours under a hot sun armed with nothing more than their shields. They were relentlessly assaulted with rocks, chunks of concrete, and Molotov cocktails and at the end of the day they dispersed their assailants with nothing more than a water cannon.

The government takes extreme measures and security forces exercise extraordinary discipline and patience with these "peaceful protestors" for two reasons:
  1. Because of the humanistic philosophy of Chavismo that dictates against   a punitive response by security forces.
  2. To avoid accusations of oppression and brutality that can be used as a pretext for sanctions and intervention by foreign governments.
Contrary to her role as circumscribed in the Bolivarian Constitution, AG Luisa Ortega has begun to report her personal political views to the media. Moreover, her reports combine criticism of the opposition with that of the government to appear "balanced" and to garner credibility.

Our columnist Arturo Rosales also reports that Ortega "appointed a chief adviser who is a virulent anti-chavista" and reminds us that "most public prosecutors supported the infamous 2002 failed coup attempt against then President Hugo Chávez. If the Attorney General has been infiltrated by foreign elements the government will be vulnerable to a typical fifth column "divide and conquer" strategy in a critical governmental position.

Please read the following report on AG Luisa Ortega by Rachael Boothroyd Rojas.

Les Blough,
- Axis of Logic's Editor in Venezuela



Venezuelan Attorney General Comes Under Fire After Controversial Press Conference

Venezuela’s Attorney General Luisa Ortega has been accused of acting with excessive leniency towards violent protesters arrested during anti-government unrest these past seven weeks, in the wake of a controversial press conference Wednesday morning.

Speaking on the severity of the protests to journalists, Ortega called on both sides of Venezuela’s political divide to exercise “responsibility” in a bid to to avoid an “unbridled spiral of political violence and repression”. She also provided an update on the state prosecution’s work to guarantee the judicial process over the past two months.

Nonetheless, her comments were immediately met with harsh criticism from the Ministry of Defense, the Interior Ministry and even from former Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez, who suggested that she had politicized the role of Attorney General.

According to Ortega, 55 people have lost their lives and 1000 had been injured since the protests began at the beginning of April, when the rightwing opposition called its supporters onto the streets to mobilize against what they described as a violation of Venezuela’s balance of powers.

Amongst the dead are 52 civilians as well as 3 members of the security forces, while 721 civilians and 229 security force officials make up the ranks of the injured, said Ortega. She also added that 346 private and public buildings had been looted or burned during the protests, hitting out at those responsible for making the problems of ordinary Venezuelans more acute at a time of economic difficulty.

“This destruction… will contribute to shortages,” she affirmed.

In what has been dubbed one of her most controversial statements in the press conference, Ortega asserted that the opposition protester, Juan Pernalete, who died April 27, was killed by a tear gas canister allegedly fired at close range from a member of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB).

The reported findings contradict an earlier claim made by the government that the student had died after being shot by a fellow protester using a captive bolt pistol, as appeared to be shown in a video circulated by state officials. Initial autopsy results also released by the state prosecution originally dismissed the hypothesis that Pernalete died from a tear gas grenade.

Over the past several weeks, the causes of the more than the 50 deaths to date have been a source of contention between the government and opposition, with the latter taking to social media in the immediate aftermath of each fatality to declare government “repression” responsible. The government has consistently hit back at the accusations with counter-charges, often accompanied by independent video footage to bolster its case.

But Ortega said that the heated public debate over the deaths was obstructing the state prosecution’s attempts to carry out objective investigations.

“I want to exhort all political actors to avoid making hypotheses over the motives behind the crimes being carried out, without the state prosecution or other auxiliary organizations who are capacitating for this such as the CICPC, having officially done so,” she commented.

The Attorney General also appeared to take aim at the opposition for encouraging the violent protests in spite of the mounting death count. Less than a week ago, two Afro-Venezuelan men were set alight and almost lynched by opposition supporters for being alleged “Chavistas”. Ortega accused certain sectors of the population of using “extreme political violence, to annihilate those who think differently”.

“This cannot be the way forward. The demonstrations must be peaceful, that is a right… But when you start to carry out violent actions, you lose that right,” she stated.

Nonetheless, Ortega also targeted the government in many of her critiques. In particular she chastised security forces for the excessive use of force in dispersing violent protests, and suggested that not all security personnel had received appropriate riot-control training.

To date, 19 security force officials have been charged by the state prosecution for crimes ranging from homicide and the misuse of a firearm, to carrying out unjust arrests, confirmed the Attorney General.

In addition, Ortega revealed that the body had opened up 16 cases into the existence of armed civilian groups that had played a part in the unrest, and called on security officials to stop “irregular armed groups promoting confrontation, whichever political party they support.”

In another blow directed at the government, Ortega also hit out at seven cases in which military tribunals had been used to try civilians as a violation of the constitution, and revealed that the state prosecution had officially requested a transfer in two of those instances.

The practice of using military courts to prosecute civilians has been defended by the government, which says that those on trial have carried out attacks on military personnel or institutions, and consequently can be tried according to military law.

But the Attorney General has also been accused of acting with leniency towards violent protesters in the wake of the press conference, in which she revealed that “only 284” of the 2664 people indicted for crimes such as homicide, looting, grievous bodily arm, robbery, and arson, remained behind bars.

“[This] confrontation… will not be solved by putting people in jail,” she said.

The numbers appear to suggest that the majority of those charged with violent crimes have since been released on bail, or even been set free without trial.

The statements provoked sharp criticism from Interior Minister Nestor Reverol, who accused the state prosecution of having failed to “guarantee the correct application of justice” through its inaction.

Making reference to an arson attack on a local rural worker’s house in Merida state by alleged opposition protesters, the interior minister said the state prosecution had disregarded police investigations and ordered the release of those responsible. He also accused the attorney general of having made public “pre-judgements” in relation to the actions of armed guard personnel before an official verdict is handed down.

“We are fully convinced and certain that the truth will prevail at the corresponding courts,” he stated, in what appeared to be a veiled allusion to Ortega’s comments on Pernalete’s death.

The interior minister’s stance was backed in a Ministry of Defense statement Thursday, which criticized Ortega’s comments on the student as premature and damaging for the morale of the armed forces.

In the public communique, the Ministry of Defense highlighted the professional conduct of the national guard, in spite of the “irrational attacks carried out against seven military unit headquarters, which included the use of firearms,” but which “received such a professional response from our soldiers that no injuries or fatalities were sustained by the attackers”.

“It’s worth noting that these acts which have been made invisible by the media have not been duly investigated by the state prosecution,” continues the statement.

However, some of the sharpest criticism of Ortega came from former attorney general and friend Isaias Rodriguez, who suggested that the attorney general may have been led on by conservative interests within the public prosecution.

Speaking in a televised interview on state TV, Rodriguez said that his own failure to dismiss approximately 150 district attorneys who backed the 2002 coup against former President Hugo Chavez when he was attorney general may have led to the current situation.

“Those people have not disappeared, they have possibly multiplied,” he remarked.

“There are two very different internal currents, one which walks on egg shells, which is very afraid, and one which is totally against the revolutionary process with a totally conservative view of the law,” he said.

Rodriguez, who stated he was a friend of Ortega, said that he thought the attorney general had overstepped the mark by assuming political positions with respect to government initiatives such as the National Constituent Assembly, called by President Nicolas Maduro on May Day, and a later rescinded Supreme Court decision to temporarily assume National Assembly functions in early April.

He said that she should have submitted a constitutional interpretation request to the Supreme Court on the issues as opposed to speak out in the media. He also alleged that Ortega’s actions caused a rift in the state prosecution, and had led to the resignation of the vice-attorney general approximately 26 days ago.

“Somebody is giving her [Ortega] bad advice,” he concluded.
Ortega has long been considered a supporter of the Chavista government, but has increasingly adopted a critical stance of the Maduro administration over the past two months. At the beginning of April, she came out in public against the Supreme Court decision to temporarily assume National Assembly functions, rejecting the ruling as unconstitutional.


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