Venezuela detains man in killings of 2 soldiers near Colombian border
Published Tuesday November 3rd, 2009
CARACAS, Venezuela - A Venezuelan man was arrested in the shooting deaths of two National Guard soldiers near the Colombian border, a crime that authorities blamed on right-wing Colombian paramilitary fighters.
Prosecutors said Tuesday that four men on motorcycles shot and killed the guardsmen at a checkpoint near the border in western Tachira state. The slayings raised tensions along the frontier and prompted Venezuela to temporarily shut some border crossings.
One suspect, 20-year-old Venezuelan Johan Manuel Mora, was detained in the border town of Urena shortly after Monday's killings and two guns were seized from him, prosecutors said. Authorities were searching for the other three suspects.
Vice-President Ramon Carrizalez said the government believes the guardsmen were killed by members of paramilitary groups, though he didn't provide details of the investigation or explain what sort of links Mora might have to the Colombian militias.
President Hugo Chavez alleged during a televised speech that the killings were part of a plan to destabilize his administration orchestrated by the U.S. government with help from Colombian authorities and his Venezuelan opponents, but presented no evidence. U.S. and Colombian officials have repeatedly denied similar accusations in the past.
Chavez also accused Tachira Gov. Cesar Perez of "facilitating the entry of paramilitaries" into Venezuela and said: "We cannot permit this." He said Perez, a member of the opposition, could face a criminal investigation.
The governor has denied such accusations and says the government has hindered his ability to improve security by stripping his police force of many of its weapons, leaving them with old .38 calibre revolvers.
Tensions have been running high in Tachira state, where the bullet-ridden bodies of 11 men, nine of them Colombians, were found last month after being abducted from a soccer field. Carrizalez said those victims apparently belonged to rightist Colombian paramilitary groups, though he didn't address suspicions they could have been killed by Colombia's leftist rebels.
Venezuela separately arrested at least 10 people last week in Tachira alleging involvement in paramilitary groups and saying they handed out fliers threatening to kill some in the area.
Colombian rebels have often used Venezuela's border region as a haven to resupply and treat their wounded in recent years, creating friction with Colombia's U.S.-allied government, which is battling the guerrillas in a conflict that also involves outlawed paramilitary groups.
Venezuelan troops are seen as enemies by the paramilitary groups because leftist rebels move freely in Venezuela and aren't confronted by authorities, said Alejandro Garcia, a councilman in Urena.
Garcia told The Associated Press he suspects that guerrillas killed the 11 abducted people last month and that the slayings of the guardsmen could be retribution. He said guerrillas active in the area include the Venezuelan group Bolivarian Liberation Forces, or FBL, and Colombia's National Liberation Army, or ELN.
Garcia said another possibility is that the guardsmen's attackers wanted to settle a score. He said some people have been growing furious with the National Guard over accusations of corruption and what they call humiliating searches at the border, including frequent seizures of cars and gasoline.
Troops have imposed stricter border measures in recent months after Chavez froze relations with Colombia over disputes including a plan to grant U.S. troops access to more Colombian military bases.
National Guard Gen. Franklin Marquez initially told state media on Monday that it's possible the attackers sought retribution for troops' efforts to crack down on cross-border smuggling of gasoline and food.
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Associated Press Writer Christopher Toothaker contributed to this report.
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