Danilo Anderson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Danilo Baltasar Anderson (born 29 October 1966 in Caracas, Venezuela; died 18 November 2004 in Caracas) was a Venezuelan environmental state prosecutor investigating more than 400 people accused of crimes against the state and Venezuelan people in the failed 2002 coup d'état attempt. Anderson, 38, was assassinated in Urbanización Los Chaguaramos in Caracas, Venezuela, while driving home from the college where he was taking post-graduate classes. He was killed when a C-4 plastic explosive device placed on the frame under the driver's seat on his Toyota SUV was detonated, apparently by remote control. Witnesses say they heard two loud explosions and saw the vehicle, already in flames, crash against the front of a nearby building.

Anderson graduated in law from Central University of Venezuela in 1995, specializing later in criminology and environmental law. He worked as a lawyer for several firms, and was a general tax inspector between 1993 and 2000. He was the first official to bring a case for environmental offenses in Caracas. According to El Nacional (an anti-Chavez publication), Anderson described himself as a radical leftist.[1] Whatever his politics may have been, he was perceived by many as one of the brightest and best of the Attorney-General's team of prosecutors. His murder shocked Venezuelan opinion across the political spectrum.

1 The context
2 The investigation
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] The context

Following the failure of the anti-Chávez coup in April 2002, leaders of the political movements opposed to President Chávez turned to economic means to achieve their political goals. For two months after December 2002 they organized effective, but ultimately failed, work stoppages performed by the staff of the Venezuelan State oil company PdVSA and other businesses.

This strike - which Chávez supporters often refer to as a lock-out - caused acute economic problems for the Chávez administration, and deepened the deeply conflictive political situation resulting from the April coup. The Chávez government managed to circumvent their opponents' resort to economic measures. Undeterred, opposition politicians then focused on constitutional efforts to seek the ouster of President Chávez, taking advantage of the 1998 Constitution's provision of a recall mechanism. Widespread international attention focused on the run-up to this recall vote which took place in August 2004. President Chávez won the vote by a substantial majority with 59% of the total.

Throughout 2004 a few extremists in the Venezuelan opposition both inside and outside the country called for the use of violence to overthrow the government. In May 2004 Venezuelan security forces caught a group of over one hundred Colombians dressed in military uniforms on a bus in the El Hatillo county of Caracas. They had been based at a farm belonging to Roberto Alonso, a Cuban based in Miami. Allegedly, the group had been training to carry out attacks on government targets.

On July 25th 2004, from his exile in Miami, disgraced former President Carlos Andrés Pérez declared "I am working to overthrow Chávez. Violence will allow us to take him out. Chávez must die like a dog." to the Venezuelan daily "El Nacional". Similarly, on October 25th2004, famous Venezuelan TV actor Orlando Urdaneta called on Miami television for the assassination of President Chávez.

Likewise, various opposition extremist groups such as Militares Democráticos and el Frente Institucional Militar issued virulent calls on their web sites for the assassination of prominent members of the Venezuelan authorities. Danilo Anderson was clearly a vulnerable target given his leading role in the investigation of prominent leaders of the coup in April 2002.

[edit] The investigation

Following the assassination, the Venezuelan authorities mounted a high-level investigation which identified ex-police agents Otoniel and Rolando Guevara as involved in the plot and who were arrested on November 26th 2004 and charged with homicide. The same day the Guevara brothers were arrested two other suspects in the case, lawyer Antonio Lopez Castillo and, another former police agent, Juan Carlos Sanchez were shot dead by investigating officers in separate incidents. A police search of the home of Lopez Castillo revealed a small arsenal of weapons, ammunition and military equipment.

Subsequently, the investigation widened in search of the organizers and planners of the murder. By August 2005 the Venezuelan authorities had detained Giovani José Vásquez De Armas, a self-confessed former member of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), the Colombian right-wing paramilitary organization. In sworn testimony given on August 29th 2005 Vásquez de Armas declared that he had participated in two meetings to plan attacks against members of the Venezuelan government. He alleged that participants in the second meeting decided to target Danilo Anderson. After that second meeting Vásquez de Armas said he collected 12kg of C4 plastic explosive in Panama and transported it to Venezuela.

The credibility of this key prosecution witness came into question after it was shown he had a criminal record for identity fraud in his native Colombia and he was not a psychiatrist as he had pledged to be. Documentation of uncertain provenance has been produced apparently showing that Vasquez de Armas was serving jail time in Santa Marta, Colombia, at the time he claims to have witnessed the planning of Anderson's murder by leading opposition figures. Venezuela's Attorney General moved to control press reporting on Vasquez de Armas while the case was sub-judice.[2][3][4][5][6] The ban on discussing the personal life and alleged unreliability of Vásquez was lifted in August, 2006.[7]

His testimony has been extremely controversial since he directly implicates leading figures of the Venezuelan opposition by name and considering he has change his declarations several times. The Attorney General himself has said he is not to be trusted completely, yet, on the basis of his testimony, warrants were issued for the arrest of leading journalist Patricia Poleo, Nelson Mezerhane, retired general Eugenio Áñez Núñez and Salvador Romaní. Mezzerane, Áñez and Romaní turned themselves in and were granted bail in December 2005. Poleo did not present herself to the authorities. She was interviewed in a TV show in Peru on January 2006.

On December 20th 2005 Otoniel and Rolando Gutiérrez were sentenced [8][9]to 27 years and 9 months imprisonment each, while their brother Juan Bautista was sentenced to the maximum 30 years.

The investigation into who masterminded Anderson's murder is ongoing and has become one of the most controversial topics in Venezuelan politics. Investigative journalists from media opposed to the government have reported a number of apparent irregularities in the investigation. Reports that Anderson allegedly operated an extensive extortion racket aimed at opposition figures and lived well beyond his means have repeatedly surfaced and have been rejected by most people close to Anderson as well as the government.[10][11] The opposition notes that three prosecutors put in charge of the Anderson murder investigation have been publicly accused of taking part in Anderson's extortion racket.

These accusations have been rejected by the government and have not been substantiated. Similarly, Venezuelan Attorney General Isaías Rodríguez was accused by government opponents of turning the investigation of Anderson's murder into a political issue, using the case to harass government opponents. [12] The accusations indicate the continuing polarization of political opinion in Venezuela between the opposition and the government.

In March, 2008, after Isaias Rodriguez had left the office of Attorney General, one of his former aides told he had manipulated some of the information in the act. A few days later, Vazquez de Armas asked to change his declaration again telling that this time he would tell all what he knew.