The social networks of Venezuela have been buzzing with messages surrounding the death of deputy Robert Serra. And some of what’s been Facebooked and tweeted is truly vile, as the National Assembly president, Diosdado Cabello, reads out above. Here’s a quick summary of the highlights (if you can call them that):
On his VTV show, Con el Mazo Dando, the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, informed on Thursday of the detention of Victor Ugas, who spread a photo via social networks of the assassinated deputy Robert Serra in the morgue, as well as the detention of a tweeter known as “La Negra Hipólita”.
“This week they also captured Victor Andrés Ugas, alias Víctor Hugo, who took the photo of comrade Robert Serra [in the morgue]. You’ll have to say who gave you the photo. Also, Daniely Benítez was detained, she’s the one called ‘[La Negra] Hipólita’. She’s very good at predicting things. On September 4, she said that the National Assembly would be in mourning, that we would be buying white candles [for wakes], but she’s so good at predicting that she never predicted that she would be jailed. That’s because the whole thing is suspicious.”
[…]
Cabello also informed of the detention of other citizens who had made threats or jokes around the assassination of Serra, as well as investigations of other Venezuelans who committed the same crimes and are not in country.
Translation mine.
Yes, that’s right…some punk leaked a photo of Robert Serra’s body in the morgue. And another one appears to have had advance knowledge of an assassination to come, one that would have vigil candles burning in the National Assembly (where, in fact, Serra’s body and that of his girlfriend, María Herrera, did lie in state). Just a macabre joke, I’m sure. Or a damn good crystal ball…one that, as Diosdado Cabello ironically remarks, somehow failed to predict that its psychic owner would land up in the slammer.
According to this news item, the photos of Serra’s corpse on the slab have been under investigation since October 10, and the suspect believed to have tweeted them was arrested on Wednesday. He remains in custody.
Meanwhile, we now know the amount of money Serra’s assassins got to do the job. A cool quarter of a million gringo dollars, according to the justice minister:
The planned and executed assassination of socialist National Assembly deputy Robert Serra cost its intellectual authors $250,000 (US), monies which came from Colombia, according to the minister of Interior Relations, Justice and Peace, Miguel Rodríguez Torres.
[…]
“With Lorent Gómez Saleh in prison, we now know that they were starting to eliminate 20 leaders,” said the minister, recounting that the terrorist plans, orchestrated in Colombia, which extremist groups were to carry out in Venezuela, and to which Saleh belonged, were to be carried out only against the leaders of the Bolivarian Revolution who mobilized the people to militancy with the greatest strength.
“They came from Colombia with that amount of money, which not just anyone would have, and killed our comrade Robert Serra,” Rodríguez Torres said during an assembly in Propatria, Caracas.
Translation, again, mine.
Money from Colombia? Surely that wouldn’t be traceable back to El Narco, would it? Miguel Rodríguez Torres thinks it would, and he would know, as justice minister and as one privy to all the information surrounding a crime of this magnitude.
Meanwhile, seven arrest orders are currently awaiting fulfillment, and Interpol is on red alert for the individuals in question. The eighth suspect is already in detention: Edwin Torres Camacho, the corrupted bodyguard who let the killers into the home.
Pablo Neruda’s prophetic words are about to come true; the cowards’ moon is hanging low in the sky. Not much longer now…