Last Friday I reported on the story of Juan Carlos Zambrano who was tortured and killed by the military in Zulia state. The same military had raped his wife. I also said then that his brother Michel was missing. Michel has now been released, after spending a week in detention. He is now being protected by the Venezuelan Observatory on Human Rights. In today’s El Nacional (by subscription) (A-8) Zambrano tell his side of the story.
Zambrano says that he managed to see his brother when he went to find him that week. He was also detained him and they began to torture both him and his brother. He stayed at the military camp for seven days and learned of his brother’s death from the same officers. He witnesses his sister in laws rape which was performed by soldiers wearing amsks. Through the videos of the soldiers at the camp, Michel has identified all three of the soldiers who caused his brother’s death. He also said that five people were tortured, including him.
Jorge Govea, Head of the Observatory said that for the deaths of Juan Carlos Zambrano and Eva Carrizo are responsible Generals Castor Perez Leal and Wilfred Silva who led the repressive wave that week in Zulia state, concluding:
“It is perhaps ironic that the armed forces use as propaganda that they are an army for the people that favors those that have the least. This has been exposed as being only an advertising slogan since that institution has turned its back on the people and is assuming roles that do not correspond to it. The Government is handling a doctrine of public order and citizen safety which is antiquated, antidemocratic and in the best style of the gorilla Governments of Latin America. Both Zambrano and Carrizo (killed on Zulia state with a shot on her back) were “pueblo’, from fairly low backgrounds and were assassinated without compassion.
Seven people are still missing from the wave of repression their names are: Omar Arturo Morales (28); Juan José Pérez (27); Juan Ernesto Sánchez (37); Andrés Bastidas Guedes (32) ; José Luis Rodríguez (33); Eduardo José Miranda (30) y Julio César Gómez (34)
The Devil's Excrement 
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