Notice this: for such a decision it would have been enough to serve notice to Zuloaga in Paraguana airport and bar him from flying out to Bonaire. That they arrested him and send a special plane to take him to Caracas courts can only mean that the original plan was to jail him. I, for once, see this as proof that international opinion and prompt reaction can work on occasion.
--------------------------------------
The news is just breaking out: on his way to Bonaire for his Easter Week vacation with his familiy, the police at Paraguana airport detained Guillermo Zuloaga, main stock owner of opposition lone remaining network media voice, Globovision.
The reason is that chavismo did not like his declarations against the government in the last IAPA meeting in Aruba last week. But the timing might be due to the just released IACHR communique that complained about the silencing of opponents by the state. The names listed in that communique include Judge Afiuni, Alvarez Paz and Guillermo Zuloaga, today's victim of chavofascism.
One paragraph of that communique bears reprinting below:
As the Commission has already stated in its report Democracy and Human Rights in Venezuela, the lack of independence and autonomy of the judiciary with respect to the political branches constitutes one of the weakest points of democracy in Venezuela, a situation that seriously hinders the free exercise of human rights in Venezuela. In the Commission’s judgment, it is this lack of independence that has allowed the use of the State’s punitive power in Venezuela to criminalize human rights defenders, judicialize peaceful social protest, and persecute political dissidents through the criminal system.And one excerpt from another paragraph:
In this regard, it is extremely troubling that those make allegations or state opinions about the situation in the country are charged with such offenses as the instigation to commit a crime. The public statements made by many government officials supporting the detention of Álvarez Paz and calling for criminal proceedings to be brought against other individuals such as Guillermo Zuloaga, simply because they expressed their opinions in public forums, demonstrate a troubling consensus among the government authorities that it is legitimate to identify those who criticize the government with criminals.Contrast this, if you can read Spanish, with the declarations of Saul Ortega and Roy Daza, two of the most prominent sycophants at the Nazional Assembly, as an off the dirt example. NOTE: these people might have indeed expressed objectionable opinions in respect of the Venezuelan "legal" system. But they go to jail on the spot, during the investigation process, before indictment, whereas all sorts of true and proven criminals hang freely in the streets of Caracas or even hold office in the government. Or is Chavez not a criminal from his failed 1992 coup?
To be continued........
PS: courtesy of reader Virginia we have the exact words of Zuloaga here. Please, someone enlighten us what sentence deserve the treatment he got today....