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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Venezuelan judge declared "enemy of the state," narrowly escapes "carjacking" |
| 2008-01-21 |
| Pajamas Media h/t Instapundit and Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism book blog On January 4, Monica Fernandez, a Venezuelan jurist with a track record for human rights advocacy, and her fiancée Javier Herrera, went shopping for plants and flowers in a nursery near her home in Caracas. As they were loading her car, she noticed two men park nearby in a brand new Mercedes Benz. They began walking toward her and each pulled out a gun. One of the men told her to give him her car keys and to get into the passenger seat. After closing her door he got into the driver’s seat. “Please, take the car, please be calm, take everything,” she pleaded. He said to her “shut your mouth you dirty bitch” and put the gun to her temple. Fernandez believes she was to be executed. “I lunged forward and ducked” she told me. She did not hear the gunshot but felt the sharp pain of the bullet in her back. The bullet hit her spine and bounced off into the other side of her back. Judge Fernandez’s fiancée, a municipal police officer, was outside of the car, held at gunpoint by the other man. Mr. Herrera had his standard issue weapon and defended himself. He killed the man in front of him but before he could save Judge Fernandez the man in the driver’s seat fired twelve rounds, hitting Mr. Herrera five times, before speeding off with the car and Judge Fernandez. The driver panicked, realizing his accomplice was dead and his gun had run out of bullets repelling Mr. Herrera. He dropped Judge Fernandez off near a freeway and abandoned the car with her purse and checkbook in the passenger seat. Mr. Herrera’s actions saved his fiancee’s life. Within three hours and before an investigation had concluded, the head of the forensic police department, controlled by the ministry of justice, declared the shootings a botched car robbery. Really? The night before she was shot, Judge Fernandez was the target of a television program called “La Hojilla” (The Razor) used by the government as its public pillory. It is on La Hojilla that the party faithful and the media learns who is in and who is out of Chavez’s favor. In a studio adorned with portraits of Lenin, Mao, Marx, Stalin, and Che Guevara, the program’s host, Mario Silva, attacks all of those who disagree or oppose the government’s actions. From Tony Blair to human rights groups like HRF and Freedom House, the government-funded program is ruthless. On January 4, Judge Fernandez was the mark and her image appeared as viewers were reminded that she is an enemy of the state, a coup-plotter, and a fascist. Mere coincidence, I'm sure. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #3 COUNTERTERRORISM BLOG > THE REAL STORY IN THE LATIN AMERICAN LANDSCAPE. Threat to PANAMA CANAL = US INTERESTS stems notsomuch from a PER SE ISLAMIST TERROR ATTACK but from INTERNATIONAL NARCOTERRORISM = DRUG CARTELS/MAFIAS? wilfully mixing or colluding wid ACTIVE-MILITANT ISLAMIST RADICALISM IN LOWER AMERICAS. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-01-21 21:57 |
| #2 He probably would be smart enough to use a cut-out. That's what all those criminal gangs are _for_. He's increaced control at all levels of society. Why do the criminal gangs still exist? Well, by making people insecure in their homes/belongings/persons, they're doing his bidding, creating the sort of society he wants. More people are dying in Venezuela from "random criminal acts" than from an allegedly centrally run terrorist campaign in Iraq. It's distributed anarcho-tyrrany. (And no, Pappy, I don't think this was the state of nature that Hobbes was talking about. Or maybe I misunderstand, and need to read more Hobbes.) |
| Posted by: Abdominal Snowman 2008-01-21 15:25 |
| #1 Wonder if the car's purchase history can be traced, and would it lead to Chavez? is he smart enough to use a cut-out? Will this even be 'investigated' any further???? Answers: No Yes No |
| Posted by: USN,Ret. 2008-01-21 14:49 |