The Devil's Excrement

Although I
may have found it too coincidental that the Prosecutor’s office brought charges
against a former officer of the investigative police on
Monday for a massacre that took place twenty years ago, maybe I should consider
it a coincidence with important symbolic consequences and Minister of Defense Baduell
should consider the implications of that case to his personal future. Maybe not
today, or next week, or in the next ten years, but his irresponsible actions
may come back to haunt him one day and may even lead to his imprisonment.

Today’s
press conference by Baduell was as confusing as it was long. You the news are
as confusing as the bits and pieces I caught of the press conference. I thought
I had heard that there were 18 military officers involved of which 8 were in
prison, while Globovision seems
to indicate that there are 34 involved in the two massacres. However, Unionradio
says that the eight in jail have nothing to do with La Paragua, while Globovision
says they are all related to that case.

It’s sort
of strange why lately all high ranking military, the best of the best that get
three stars and have been promoted to Minister are so hard to understand. Remember
Lucas Rincon, the man that said “We asked for his resignation, which he accepted”
saying the clearest words he ever said that fateful night of April 11^th.
2002 or former General and Minister of Defense Garcia Carneiro, who should have
always had an interpreter for us to understand what he said. Baduell is
similar, convoluted, barely opens his mouth as he speaks. Why is this? Is it
that Chavez picks them so that he will have no competition or reflects a new
style in Venezuela’s
now more incompetent military?

In any
case, Baduell seemed to say, in my opinion, that there are 34 members of the
military being investigated for the two cases, of which eight are in detention
and this part of a military operation that began on Thursday. This seems to be
consistent with what I heard and some
of the versions in the media.

What
Baduell has not answered iany of this:

–Why was
the National Guard kicked out of Bolivar state and replaced with the Army, isn’t
that a contradiction in terms of their functionality and roles? Was it the gold
or some more “strategic” reason?

–If
Baduell was not the liar at his press conference in Bolivar state, when he said
“The miners had an armed confrontation with the Army”, who was?

–Who told
Baduell that the helicopters never touched the ground?

–Who told
Baduell that the military personnel never shot from the air?

–Who told
Baduell there were only four dead?

–Who did
not tell Baduell that some of the dead had been shot on the back of their neck?

–Who gave
the Governor of Bolivar State, retired General Francisco Rangel his version? Was
it Baduell?

This all sounds
like a cover up, the more they speak on it, the more confusing, contradictory
and convoluted it gets.  

I think that Baduells’ political ambitions may have died this week, it may have indeed been symbolic that the old massacre was rveived this week.  Fortunately,
under the new Constitution, human rights cases never prescribe.  

Did you
know that Gral. Raul Baduell?

I will not
forget it!

This entry was posted on September 27, 2006 at 9:39 pm and is filed under Venezuela.