Trial of assassins of Venezuelan district attorney underway

CARACAS (PL).—This Monday the Venezuelan Ministry of Justice initiated the trial of the alleged authors of the assassination of district attorney Danilo Anderson, who headed the prosecution for the trial of those involved in the April 2002 coup d’état.

Eight months after the crime, the trial has begun of Rolando, Otoniel and Juan Bautista Guevara (two brothers and a cousin) who allegedly placed the explosive device under Anderson’s car.

Speaking to the Bolivarian News Agency (ABN), María Lala Anderson, a sister of the murdered attorney, rejected versions that have appeared in the national press on the case’s alleged link with extortion.

She recalled that it was when Anderson became a key person in the investigation into the most relevant files that he became the center of attack for sectors of the opposition.

Recently Isaías Rodríguez, Attorney General of the Republic, stated that that assassination was part of a series of terrorist attacks intended to destabilize the country.

The principal objective of the homicide on November 18, 2004, he affirmed, was the president of the Republic, Hugo Chávez and other senior officials, including the vice president of the Republic and the Minister of Defense, among others.

Rodríguez stated: "The attempt was absolutely political and its main objective was to destabilize the country from the political point of view."

According to the claim, the prime target was President Chávez and Anderson was just a rehearsal.

Rodríguez noted that the investigations revealed that those implicated in the assassination of the district attorney had meetings in Panama in September 2003 and were in Miami in that same month.

He added that in early 2004, during a meeting in Zulia, the plot to commit the assassination was finalized and it was decided to kill Anderson as having the most vulnerable protection service.

Anderson, he explained, "felt that he could defend himself and even dispensed with his bodyguards at very significant times, such as when he was going to classes, which was where he was assassinated.

According to revelations, the network that organized the killing of the district attorney is handling a minimum of $20 million and is made up of Venezuelans with foreign backing.

Rodríguez also stated that the network has passed a death sentence on the witnesses given that some of the key persons in the case have refused to speak, "but others are prepared to die if that is the price of informing on what happened," he assured.

Anderson was killed when he was leaving a postgraduate class in Criminal Science at the Scientific Police University Institute in the Venezuelan capital.

Rolando and Otoniel were charged by the Public Ministry of the crime of premeditated homicide and Juan Bautista for the illicit carrying of firearms and war materials.

The Public Ministry has also charged the brothers Otoniel and Rolando with the use of counterfeit documents.