[NYTr] Venez: Coup Victims Back Amnesty
 
Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2008 18:57:07 -0600 (CST)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com

Venez: Coup Victims Back Amnesty

Caracas, Jan 3 (Prensa Latina) The victims of the 2002 coup d'etat in
Venezuela backed an amnesty decreed by President Hugo Chavez for crimes
linked to that event, amid criticisms by the opposition, which proposes
to expand that measure.

Representatives of the Association of Coup d'Etat Victims said that the
defense attorneys for 11 Metropolitan Police officers accused of crimes
against humankind have used criticism as a strategy.

Yesenia Fuentes and Attorney Antonio Molina told the radio station YVKE
Mundial that the ex police officers were not excluded from the amnesty,
but they cannot benefit from the measure, because they were accused of
crimes against humankind and human rights violations.

They recalled that the amnesty does not benefit those who committed
crimes against humankind, human rights violations or did not surrender
to the competent courts.

Molina added that Chiefs Lazaro Forero, Henry Vivas and Ivan
Simonovich, and the other members of the Metropolitan Police shot at
people unjustifiably.

The sources recalled that on April 11, 2002, a group of officers from
the Metropolitan Police shot their rifles and submachine guns at
President Hugo Chavez's supporters who were demonstrating on Baralt
Avenue and Puente Llaguno, near the Presidential Palace.

Molina explained that after the defense attorneys presented an appeal
on the grounds of unconstitutionality on April 13, 2007, the
Constitutional Courtroom of the Supreme Court of Justice ruled that the
police officers could not benefit from the amnesty.

In no case, the decree can favor them, because the crimes they
committed attempted against people, including serious violations of
human rights such as the right to life, he added.

"The Venezuelan State cannot, under any concept, grant any kind of
benefits to these people because that would lead to impunity," he
pointed out.

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