DISAPPEARANCES, AN ONGOING CONTROVERSY

C O N F I D E N T I A L CARACAS 001316 SIPDIS NSC FOR CBARTON USCINCSO ALSO FOR POLAD USAID DCHA/OTI FOR RPORTER DRL/PHD FOR JDAVIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/03/2013 TAGS: PHUM PGOV VE SUBJECT: DISAPPEARANCES, AN ONGOING CONTROVERSY Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ABELARDO A. ARIAS FOR REASONS 1.4 (B ) AND (D) -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (U) The Democratic Coordinating Committee (CD) announced March 9 that eight opposition protesters had disappeared during the February 27-March 5 political disturbances. Subsequently, one of the eight reappeared, and the GOV denied that the remaining seven were missing, citing the lack of complaints by their relatives. Opposition sources maintain that something happened to the seven but lack firm information. Human rights organizations have been unable to confirm the status of the allegedly missing individuals, who are likely no longer missing but too frightened to come forward. In addition to these seven, the disappearance of Dario Gonzales on March 5 was reported by his mother and publicized in the press March 30. End Summary. ¶2. (U) The Democratic Coordinating Committee (CD) announced March 9 that eight opposition protesters had disappeared during the February 27-March 5 political disturbances. Miguel Pacheco, a Democratic Action party activist, was detained March 3 in Cumana, Sucre State. Since security forces failed to notify his family of his detention, he was listed as disappeared. Pacheco reappeared March 10 in Puerto Ordaz, Bolivar State with signs of torture, according to the human rights NGO COFAVIC. ¶3. (U) The whereabouts of the remaining seven protesters (Omar Morales, Juan Perez, Juan Sanchez, Andres Bastidas, Jose Rodriguez, Eduardo Miranda, and Julio Gomez) is still a matter of dispute. Abdel Naime, president of the Freedom Commandos (linked to the radical Democratic Bloc),told the CD that the seven, all members of the Freedom Commandos, had been protesting in or near the central highway of Caracas when they were detained by the National Guard and Military Police. Naime told the CD he believed all seven had been killed. D'lsa Solorzano, head of the CD Judicial Commission, told reporters April 10 that the CD released the names to the media in an attempt to find out what happened to them. ¶4. (U) German Mundarain, Human Rights Ombudsman, issued a statement March 29 denying that the seven men were missing. He noted that the CD had called on their families to provide more information and to make formal complaints of the disappearances, but none had done so to date. The lack of complaints, Mundarain implied, indicated that no one was missing. Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel similarly discounted the allegations. ¶5. (C) Lisette Behrens of the CD's Judicial Commission told poloff April 6 that she has serious doubts regarding the reliability of the information provided by Abdel Naime. Behrens says she has known Naime for several years and described him as "radical and crazy." In addition, she finds it strange that the families of the missing men have completely refused to provide any information to the CD. She believes the most plausible explanation is that the men were detained and later released, and they and their families are now too frightened to come forward with complaints or even the news that the missing persons have been found. Her theory is somewhat bolstered by the opposite actions taken in another disappearance reported by the daily TalCual March 30. Dario Gonzalez left his home March 5 and never returned, according to his mother. Besides taking her son's disappearance to the press, Mrs. Gonzalez filed a missing persons report with the authorities. ¶6. (U) COFAVIC investigated the cases of the seven men reported missing by Abdel Naime but was unable to discover their fate or confirm anything at all regarding what happened to them, according to a report issued March 18. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶7. (C) It is probably true that the opposition released the names of missing people in the hope of obtaining information on their whereabouts, as the CD's D'lsa Solorzano says. Reports of disappeared protesters, however, have been used by the opposition as a political weapon against the GOV with little apparent regard for the reliability of the information. The explanation suggested by Lisette Behrens, that frightened families are keeping silent to protect the former detainees, seems likely. SHAPIRO NNNN 2004CARACA01316 - CONFIDENTIAL