BOUND and beaten, with multiple stab-wounds to the chest, the body of Robert Serra, a 27-year-old member of parliament for Venezuela’s ruling party, was found at his Caracas home on the night of October 1st. His female assistant, María Herrera, had also been stabbed to death. Even in a country with one of the world’s worst homicide rates, the brutal murder of Serra and Herrera caused public revulsion. But some were just as shocked that, almost before the blood was dry, many leading government spokesmen, including President Nicolás Maduro, were already attributing the crime to “hired killers” working for the opposition.
Political assassination is extremely rare in Venezuela, despite the country’s bitter political polarisation between the followers of the late President Hugo Chávez and the opposition, mainly represented by the Democratic Unity (MUD) alliance. MUD leaders immediately condemned the murders and called off a planned demonstration to avoid stirring up animosity. As evidence for its claim, the government pointed to an opposition legislator’s remark in parliament, just days before the murder, that government members’...Continue reading
from Americas view http://ift.tt/1sFicj1
No comments:
Post a Comment