When Barbarity Governs Venezuela. By VenEconomy. LAHT. + Video.
06-06-2015
VenEconomy: When Barbarity Governs Venezuela From the Editors of VenEconomy Latin American Herald Tribune June 5, 2015
A group of workers loyal to the ruling party broke in the mayor’s office of the Mario Briceño Iragorry municipality.Three journalists wounded, one of them gravely after they dropped him off the second floor of the building .
When barbarity takes control of justice and has dominion over all public authorities, any kind of unimaginable nonsense can happen anytime, anywhere.
Barbarity governs Venezuela today, and this is no common place or exaggeration.
Among other barbarisms from various kinds, today stands out one that came out in the press happening in regional and municipal governments elected by popular vote.
It turns out that a witch-hunt against elected mayors opposing the National Government is taking place at this moment. Legal proceedings have been opened against 33 (42.8%) of 77 opposition mayors after the elections of December 2013 for different reasons.
There are precedents of Daniel Ceballos, the mayor of the San Cristóbal municipality in Táchira state, who was sent to prison for not enforcing an order of the Supreme Court (TSJ) that required not to allow guarimbas (the set-up of roadblocks with sticks, stones and other debris across public roads and residential zones) when protests broke out in February 2014. Enzo Scarano, mayor of the San Diego municipality (Valencia, Carabobo state), had similar criminal charges but was released from prison a few months ago.
Both the health and life of Ceballos are at risk after conducting a hunger strike for a week, which he started to demand the cessation of repression and censorship, the freedom of political prisoners and free parliamentary elections with the observation of independent international bodies. There are measures of protection on Ceballos, as much as on Leopoldo López, requested by the OAS, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the European Parliament.
Another precedent is the case of Antonio Ledezma, the former metropolitan mayor of Caracas and most voted mayor of the country, today under house arrest for health reasons as he stands trial for alleged offenses of conspiracy and association with criminal intent, provided for and punished under the Criminal Code and the Organic Law against Organized Crime and Financing of Terrorism.
More recently, the vengeful axe of the State cut off the head of the mayor of the José Antonio Páez municipality in Apure state, Lumay Barreto, who was removed from office after a ruling of the TSJ’s Constitutional Chamber determined she had irresponsibly left her office for a period of six days. It should be noted that article 87 of the Law of the Public Municipal Power establishes that mayors and governors can leave up to 14 days without requesting permission. And it should be remembered that the late Hugo Chávez was out of the national territory with extreme health conditions for three months, without the Parliament or the TSJ declaring his absolute absence as required by law.
But, perhaps the most evident case that there are no limits when it comes to committing abuses against governments of the opposition, is that of the mayoralty of the Mario Briceño Iragorry municipality (Maracay, Aragua state), where serious acts of violence occurred after a group of workers loyal to the ruling party broke in the mayor’s office. Not only they caused physical destruction to the facilities, but left a balance of three journalists from the mayoralty’s press team wounded, with one of them, Alejandro Ledo, a graphic journalist, in serious condition after they dropped him off the second floor of the building.
That kind of violence, wherever it comes from, can’t have any justification from any citizen, even less from those holding office in regional governments or public authorities.
Logic and common sense should prevail in these cases, and not automatic solidarities. Condemning, investigating and punishing the guilty should be the right move. The opposite is complicity before a crime where the lives of Venezuelans have been put at risk.