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The future of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is doomed

By Aleksander Boyd

London 01 Apr. 04 – Mohammad Merhi, father of a victim and victim himself of political prosecution by the regime of Hugo Chavez, sent me an e-mail few days ago saying that they would present their case officially to the prosecutors of the International Criminal Court on Wednesday March 31. What a pleasant surprise was yesterday’s Reuters article in which Alfredo Romero expressed that they were indeed presenting the case before the prosecution. I did not want to write about this before for, dreading reprisals prior to their departure from Venezuela, Merhi asked to keep everything under wraps until they had left the country.

I must admit that it is an extraordinary achievement that needs to be sufficiently commented about. Whilst the chavista spin machine continues to fire in every direction baseless accusations of intromission of the US in Venezuela’s internal affairs, here we have one provable argument that will not fade away. Would the International Criminal Court (ICC) accept a case which has not got strong and valid legal foundations? The answer is no. The Spanish Audience heard about the case of crimes against humanity executed by Hugo Chavez and 22 of his closest aides on April 11 2002 and considering that there was enough evidence to proceed with the investigation they decided to remit the case to the ICC. It is the duty of the ICC now to investigate and convict Hugo Chavez for crimes against humanity.

The relatives of the victims of April 11 2002 are yet to see justice made vis-ŕ-vis the massacre of that day. Recent repression to unarmed civilians, which has left a number of deaths, tortured and missing, has only reinforced the case against Hugo Chavez. As a matter of fact it has served as a turning point for many in the international community that up to this moment were lenient towards Chavez and his brutal practices. Not one serious news outlet, human right NGO or personality will speak in favour of Chavez today. The cases are too evident, the political prisoners are too many, the missing are yet to re-appear, the death toll is on the increase, the world saw on prime television how Chavez’ National Guard attacked unarmed civilians again, in sum we have all seen the true colours of this degenerated character.

Today more than ever we must convince ourselves that whatever the outcome of the current political deadlock in the country is, Hugo Chavez has a rendezvous with international justice. Fortunately for Venezuelan victims said justice is not exercised by Ivan Rincon Urdaneta or Isaias Rodriguez but by others who will not bend to orders. Yesterday’s news reaffirm the belief that the future of the most disgraceful president Venezuela has had is doomed. It will be a real treat to visit him in jail…



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