Diosdado Cabello on his television program Con el Mazo Dando. Photo: Globovision/File photo.
The minister of the interior, justice, and peace, Diosdado Cabello, has reported that the Scientific, Penal, and Criminal Investigation Corps (CICPC) will open an investigation into those who have spread misinformation surrounding the death of the Popular Will (VP) activist Edwin Santos.
During a broadcast of his television program Con el Mazo Dando this Thursday, October 31, Cabello announced that the CICPC will summon those who took it upon themselves to make claims that Santos had supposedly been kidnapped, even though the authorities had determined that the opposition activist died in a traffic accident in the state of Apure.
According to the misinformation campaign, promoted by the VP party and the NGO Provea, state security agencies had supposedly kidnapped Santos, and there were apparently witnesses to this. Diosdado Cabello stated that this claim is a manipulation so that the rest of the world believes that the government is killing members of the opposition.
“All those who said ‘there are witnesses who saw when he was kidnapped’ will be summoned to the CICPC,” said the first vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). “They will have to bring witnesses, because you cannot say happily ‘there are witnesses here’ when it is a lie.”
Regarding the NGOs that spread this false information, Cabello indicated that they will also be called to present those who support their information, adding, “If Provea said that they had witnesses, they will have to look for the witnesses and present them. They cannot hide behind the fact that they are an NGO. On July 28th, they crossed the line which they should not have crossed. There will be justice, so that there will be peace.”
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Cabello also took the opportunity to clarify that the government is not persecuting the opposition, but that the opposition was beaten in the elections, and so they seek to discredit the victorious government.
Diosdado Cabello further condemned the imperial interference of the Undersecretary of the US Department of State for Latin America, Brian Nichols, who called for Venezuela to investigate the death of Edwin Santos, despite the fact that the autopsy had already confirmed that he died in a traffic accident.
Cabello suggested to Nichols that, after recalling the case of George Floyd, he deal with the internal affairs of his own country, where police violence is a primary issue.
“Find out first what is happening in your country,” said the minister. “Do you remember George Floyd, who was murdered and nothing happened because he was black? You did not open your mouth because you are a confused person who believes himself to be white.”
According to the autopsy, Santos died when the motorcycle he was driving hit a tree. This caused him to suffer facial trauma, musculoskeletal trauma to the left leg, and contusions in the left maxillary-mental region, resulting in death.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/BR/AU
