Costa Rica diplomat is latest Venezuela kidnap victim

[Bacchus4.0]

http://news.yahoo.com/costa-rica-diplomat-latest-venezuela-kidnap-victim-172754571.html


CARACAS (Reuters) - Kidnappers have seized a Costa Rican diplomat in the latest high-profile abduction in crime-plagued Venezuela, authorities of both countries said on Monday.

Guillermo Cholele, an attache at his country's embassy in Caracas, was kidnapped on Sunday night by unknown assailants, who apparently also took his car, Costa Rica's Foreign Ministry said.

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Abductions are rife in Venezuela, where violent crime is routinely listed as citizens' No. 1 worry. The most common are "express kidnappings," normally short and motivated purely by money.

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Venezuela's opposition, which is hoping to topple President Hugo Chavez in an October election, says the government only shows urgency in the fight on crime when foreign or high-profile victims are involved.

[COLGATE4]

1. Wait for the Fearless Leader contingent on DU

to chime in with "well, the damned oligarch probably deserved it" or something equally inane.

[joshcryer]

2. I was amused when PCV started beating the war drums about "instabilities"...

...in the future.

No, not at all. Venezuela is already highly unstable.

[ChangoLoa]

3. Costa Rican commercial attaché freed in Caracas following kidnapping

Costa Rica in Caracas, Guillermo Cholele, was released following his kidnapping, said on Tuesday Interior and Justice Minister Tarek El Aissami via Twitter.

The diplomat, 55, was abducted late Sunday on a street in La Urbina, northeast Caracas.

According to the information released by El Aissami, Cholele is in good condition and has talked with his relatives, particularly his wife.


http://www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/120410/costa-rican-commercial-attache-freed-in-caracas-following-kidnapping

[ChangoLoa]

4. Eleven diplomats have been attacked since 2010 in Venezuela

At least 11 diplomats have been attacked by criminals between 2010 and 2012 in Venezuela, according to unofficial records kept by Venezuelan daily newspaper El Universal.

On March 16, Karen Berendique, 19, a Chilean consul's daughter, was killed when police officers in the state of Zulia, northwestern Venezuela, shot at the car she was riding in.

On January 30, 2012, a commando group of five criminals kidnapped Mexico's ambassador to Venezuela, Carlos Pujalte Piñeiro, and his wife Paloma Ojeda. They were released less than 24 hours later.

On November 11, 2011, Juan Carlos Fernández, Chile's consul in Venezuela, was the victim of an "express kidnapping." He was wounded by a gunshot. He was later released on a road.


http://www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/120409/eleven-diplomats-have-been-attacked-since-2010-in-venezuela

[ChangoLoa]

5. Communist Party blames opposition for kidnappings and murders

he attack against Venezuelan reggae singer Onechot, the death of the manager of Caramelos de Cianuro, a Venezuelan rock band, and the murder of the daughter of Chile's consul in Maracaibo are some of the recent tragic events in Venezuela that have hit the youth and raised suspicions in Venezuela's Communist Party (PCV).

"We are not naïve," said Yul Jabour, a PCV spokesman, claiming that opposition members could be related to such crimes.

Jabour stated that "dissenters could be related to these events in order to promote destabilization in an election year." He requested Venezuelan authorities to investigate these cases.

Jabour recalled that police officers of the state of Miranda (which is ruled by opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski) were involved in the case of the death of the manager of Caramelos de Cianuro. The communist leader said that in his recent visit to Bogotá, Capriles talked with former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe Vélez. "These actions are aimed at increasing violence," Jabour said.

The PCV leader failed to mention that members of the Scientific, Criminal and Forensic Investigation Agency (Cicpc), a government police agency, were involved in the murder of the daughter of the Chilean consul.


http://www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/120409/communist-party-blames-opposition-for-kidnappings-and-murders