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<font size=3><br><br>
</font><font face="georgia" size=5 color="#A80000">International court
cases to be brought against US Ambassador to Venezuela, Charles S.
Shapiro</font><font face="georgia" size=5> <br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=4><a href="http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=17335">http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=17335</a><br><br>
</font><font face="georgia" size=2><b>VHeadline.com correspondent Philip
Stinard writes:</b></font><font face="georgia" size=3> On April 11, in
Caracas, the Venezuelan group ASOVIC <i>(Association of Victims of the
April 11, 2002 coup against Hugo Chavez)</i> announced that they would
file charges in US courts, and in the World Court in the Hague, against
US Ambassador to Venezuela, Charles Shapiro, for his involvement in
sniper shootings at the Llaguno Bridge during the coup at the Miraflores
Palace that left several people dead, including a journalist. <br><br>
According to a statement released by Merly Morales, a spokeswoman for the
lawyers representing ASOVIC, there are elements for conviction, which in
our judgment, serve as evidence to ask for the opening of an inquiry
before US courts and the appropriate international tribunalsagainst
Ambassador Shapiro. Such evidence ranges from special courses in assault
given by US authorities to members of the Caracas Metropolitan Police
Phoenix Group and Chacao and Baruta municipal police in the months of
October 2001 and with greater frequency in March and the first days of
April 2002, to conversations recorded in the Center of Operations of the
Metropolitan Police on April 11 of that year <i>(2002)</i> between
Commissioner Forero and Ambassador Shapiro during the hours of greatest
intensity of shots fired by members of the aforementioned police
institution (Caracas Metropolitan Police) against people concentrated in
the areas immediately surrounding the Miraflores Palace.<br><br>
</font><font face="georgia" size=2><b>In addition, there is also evidence
presented by the <i>(Chavez)</i> administration relating to the presence
in Venezuelan territory of US ships on April 11, as well as <i>(US)</i>
military personnel in the military installations at Fort Tiuna that would
lead one to believe that there was an act of State committed against the
constitutional government of Venezuela that directly affected members of
our association that were injured and killed.<br><br>
</b></font><font face="georgia" size=3>With reference to a court case
brought against Hugo Chavez before the World Court in The Hague by
opposition groups, Morales continues, a group of Venezuelan citizens,
tied to international conspiratorial factors that participated in, and
still participate in, plots against the President, asked for an
investigation before the Prosecutor of the World Court in The Hague
against our Head of State and other high officials for supposed crimes
against humanity; this obligates us to take part in these legal processes
because we are direct victims of these processes, and <i>(we do this)</i>
in honor of dismantling the international judicial landscape activated by
the coup leaders, who were the true ones responsible for those
occurrences <i>(the shootings)</i>.<br><br>
</font><font face="georgia" size=4 color="#A80000"><u>Zeus 32 Americana,
aka US Ambassador Charles Shapiro</font><font face="georgia" size=4>
<br><br>
</u></font><font face="georgia" size=3>The tapes of Caracas Metropolitan
Police conversations referred to in the complaint to be filed by ASOVIC
were made available to Radio Nacional de Venezuela (RNE) by Commissioner
Leonardo Navas (Metropolitan Police) in November last year. In an
interview broadcast on Venezolana de Television (VTV), Navas denounces
the involvement of the Metropolitan Director of Police, Henry Vivas in a
conspiracy that sought the overthrow of President Hugo Chavez, and states
that the police kept Ambassador Shapiro informed of all occurrences that
took place with respect to the assault on the pro-Chavez demonstrators
near the Palace as they happened. <br><br>
Navas states first of all, I want to say that I appeal to the freedom of
conscience that is established in Article 61 of the National
Constitution, and then I must state that what you are going to hear on
this tape are several things that are very delicate, and which implicate
several police authorities in a conspiracy in the acts which occurred on
April 11 (2002)."<br><br>
</font><font face="georgia" size=2><b>"It is important that these be
made known, and I come here to make this <i>(tape)</i> public because I
dont want to be involved in the cover-up of criminal activities. On the
tape, it is clearly evident how the Metropolitan Police participated in
the crucial moment of the 11th of April, and several things that they
have tried to cover up will be revealed.<br><br>
</b></font><font face="georgia" size=3>As the tape plays, one can hear a
conversation between various police officials, who indicate that they
have taken various roof tops of buildings in the center of Caracas, in
the vicinity of the opposition march. One can also hear the voice of a
person who identifies himself as Sun 1... who in this case is
Metropolitan Police Director Vivas ... talking to Sun 2... Lazaro Forero,
current Commander of this police force ... asking for updates. Forero
informs Vivas that the talibans(referring to the pro-Chavez demonstrators
on Llaguno Bridge), are shooting back at them, and the police cant leave
their current location. He adds that, the Phoenix Group must arm itself
with long-range riflesto neutralize those people. <br><br>
<u>Navas continues:</u> This is a 120 minutes tape and I selected the
most relevant parts, but I must say that you can hear that they were
stationed on the rooftops of the buildings on Baralt Avenue. Some people
have said that, hours before, in the morning or at noon on April 11,
there were supposedly snipers ... and if that theory were true, how is it
that you hear that the Metropolitan Police are on these same roofs and
that there are no people being detained? That shows that it was the
police who were on the roofs, <i>(not snipers)</i>. Furthermore, the
police indicate that they were being shot at from below. All of this is
clear evidence that the <i>(Metropolitan Police)</i> institution was
loaned to a sector of the population, in this case the
opposition.<br><br>
Later, one can hear on the tape a voice asking someone to call Zeus 32
Americana... the code word for US Ambassador to Venezuela, Charles
Shapiro. Nava continues this raises suspicion or calls attention to the
fact that, in this crucial moment, when they should be paying more
attention to what is happening on Baralt Avenue, they ask to speak to
someone who has nothing to do with this ... this is interference in the
internal affairs of the country.<br><br>
All of this will be public proof, well-known and widely communicated,
that any prosecutor can use officially to initiate a criminal
investigation; and we can demonstrate that, truly, some members of the
<i>(police)</i> institution were involved in the situation that occurred
on April 11; and with the deaths and injuries, we are looking at several
crimes. Commissioners Forero, Vivas, and Delgado must know that the
police ... by acting in a disproportionate manner ... entering forcefully
to neutralize people who at that moment were not using their guns or
presenting any resistance, increasing the activity of an institution
that, rather than reestablishing public order, subverted public
order.<br><br>
</font><font face="georgia" size=2><b>The tapes can be heard at:
<a href="http://rnv.gov.ve/noticias/?act=ST&f=28&t=1742">http://rnv.gov.ve/noticias/?act=ST&f=28&t=1742</a><br><br>
</b></font><font face="georgia" size=3>Footage of the assault can be
viewed in the documentary "The Revolution Will Not Be
Televised." A second documentary on the rooftop assault: Llaguno
Bridge: Keys to a Massacreis in production and will cover some aspects
not covered in the first documentary. <br><br>
</font><div align="right"><font face="georgia" size=2 color="#000080"><b>This
report was compiled with information<br>
from Venpres and Radio Nacional de Venezuela.<br><br>
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