Dubai Telegraph - Venezuela crackdown helped avert 'civil war': attorney general

EUR -
AED 3.879921
AFN 70.774705
ALL 97.658441
AMD 409.488241
ANG 1.905213
AOA 963.376768
ARS 1054.320885
AUD 1.627536
AWG 1.901401
AZN 1.801486
BAM 1.943481
BBD 2.134372
BDT 126.319293
BGN 1.9558
BHD 0.398119
BIF 3061.256379
BMD 1.056334
BND 1.412811
BOB 7.304697
BRL 6.133815
BSD 1.057139
BTN 89.15023
BWP 14.343757
BYN 3.459372
BYR 20704.14942
BZD 2.130774
CAD 1.478319
CDF 3026.39715
CHF 0.935785
CLF 0.037514
CLP 1035.112444
CNY 7.631383
CNH 7.652882
COP 4731.320676
CRC 539.798787
CUC 1.056334
CUP 27.992855
CVE 110.756993
CZK 25.285045
DJF 187.73139
DKK 7.458754
DOP 63.776161
DZD 141.547711
EGP 52.10252
ERN 15.845012
ETB 128.925753
FJD 2.399199
FKP 0.831283
GBP 0.831356
GEL 2.884081
GGP 0.831283
GHS 17.012698
GIP 0.831283
GMD 74.999517
GNF 9116.163919
GTQ 8.168224
GYD 221.158132
HKD 8.219706
HNL 26.472039
HRK 7.535367
HTG 138.99552
HUF 407.89813
IDR 16738.565373
ILS 3.965716
IMP 0.831283
INR 89.179585
IQD 1384.325909
IRR 44463.742746
ISK 147.284729
JEP 0.831283
JMD 167.357086
JOD 0.749047
JPY 164.334965
KES 136.790508
KGS 91.061436
KHR 4278.153377
KMF 492.621303
KPW 950.700505
KRW 1481.899804
KWD 0.324971
KYD 0.880916
KZT 521.017397
LAK 23181.253406
LBP 94594.723681
LKR 308.961568
LRD 194.36531
LSL 19.278261
LTL 3.11908
LVL 0.638966
LYD 5.144042
MAD 10.518957
MDL 19.048258
MGA 4917.235703
MKD 61.531456
MMK 3430.932127
MNT 3589.423527
MOP 8.469315
MRU 42.121293
MUR 49.531301
MVR 16.320345
MWK 1833.795702
MXN 21.69129
MYR 4.711444
MZN 67.498546
NAD 19.277515
NGN 1771.95785
NIO 38.851914
NOK 11.767666
NPR 142.642227
NZD 1.796592
OMR 0.406667
PAB 1.057099
PEN 4.016129
PGK 4.156411
PHP 62.152628
PKR 293.713639
PLN 4.341243
PYG 8250.095155
QAR 3.845638
RON 4.975967
RSD 116.975311
RUB 104.047459
RWF 1441.89612
SAR 3.969228
SBD 8.855836
SCR 14.40717
SDG 635.387436
SEK 11.603515
SGD 1.418836
SHP 0.831283
SLE 24.100276
SLL 22150.800682
SOS 603.695541
SRD 37.267363
STD 21863.98426
SVC 9.24937
SYP 2654.071001
SZL 19.278362
THB 36.91096
TJS 11.263007
TMT 3.707733
TND 3.32481
TOP 2.474044
TRY 36.2854
TTD 7.183466
TWD 34.278574
TZS 2809.848602
UAH 43.672836
UGX 3879.409365
USD 1.056334
UYU 44.567497
UZS 13547.485199
VES 47.531547
VND 26772.789136
VUV 125.410144
WST 2.954552
XAF 651.855898
XAG 0.034887
XAU 0.000411
XCD 2.854796
XDR 0.796378
XOF 651.239726
XPF 119.331742
YER 263.875515
ZAR 19.259818
ZMK 9508.281216
ZMW 28.91707
ZWL 340.139167
  • RBGPF

    -0.8500

    59.34

    -1.43%

  • CMSC

    0.0700

    24.61

    +0.28%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.24

    +0.15%

  • BCC

    1.4200

    142.55

    +1%

  • SCS

    -0.3000

    13.37

    -2.24%

  • RELX

    -0.4700

    46.12

    -1.02%

  • NGG

    -0.7800

    62.12

    -1.26%

  • BCE

    -0.4800

    27.21

    -1.76%

  • AZN

    0.1000

    65.29

    +0.15%

  • CMSD

    -0.0200

    24.73

    -0.08%

  • RIO

    -0.5800

    60.62

    -0.96%

  • GSK

    -0.4100

    35.11

    -1.17%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0500

    7.11

    -0.7%

  • BTI

    0.1800

    35.42

    +0.51%

  • VOD

    0.2800

    8.75

    +3.2%

  • BP

    0.4100

    28.57

    +1.44%

Venezuela crackdown helped avert 'civil war': attorney general
Venezuela crackdown helped avert 'civil war': attorney general / Photo: Juan BARRETO - AFP

Venezuela crackdown helped avert 'civil war': attorney general

Venezuela's Attorney General Tarek William Saab defended the state's crackdown on opposition supporters after disputed July elections, telling AFP the authorities' actions helped avert a "civil war."

Text size:

The proclamation of authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro as the winner of the July 28 election triggered widespread protests.

The opposition, which had been tipped by polls for an easy win, had published detailed polling-station-level results which showed its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia winning by a landslide.

Twenty-eight people, including two police officers, were killed and 200 injured in the unrest, during which around 2,400 people were arrested.

- 'Premeditated' unrest -

Saab claimed the violence that marred the protests had been "premeditated."

"There was an attempt to trigger a civil war," he said.

"The plan consisting in claiming there was fraud in order to generate a terrorist act. If we had not acted as we did at that moment Venezuela would have been gripped by civil war," he told AFP in an interview Monday at his office in Caracas.

He denied the security forces had any responsibility for the deaths of demonstrators.

A September 4 report into the killings by Human Rights Watch (HRW) pointed the finger at Venezuelan security forces and pro-government militias known as "colectivos" in some of the deaths.

One of the victims was a 15-year-old boy, Isaias Jacob Fuenmayor Gonzalez, who sustained a gunshot to the neck while taking part in a protest in Maracaibo, Venezuela's second-biggest city, according to HRW.

- Detainees 'not political prisoners' -

Saab, whose office walls are lined with portraits of Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar, late Venezuelan socialist firebrand Hugo Chavez, his late Cuban ally Fidel Castro and Maduro, denied allegations his office was under Maduro's thumb.

Appointed attorney general in 2017, he was re-elected to the position earlier this month by a parliament stacked with Maduro loyalists.

He cited among his achievements increased investment in community policing and 600 convictions handed down to police officers for human rights violations.

He also pointed to nearly 22,000 convictions for corruption under his watch and claimed to have dismantled "34 corruption systems" at graft-ridden state oil giant Petroleos de Venezuela.

Five of the last eight oil ministers are in prison or fled the country.

Saab claimed that during the post-election violence "around 500" buildings, including schools, clinics and town halls were damaged by protesters.

He denied that those detained were political prisoners, accusing them of "trying to burn" and "shooting at" demonstrators, without providing any evidence of his claim.

"A political prisoner is someone who has been detained because of his political ideas and who uses peaceful tactics... These people took weapons to (try to) overthrow a legitimately constituted government," he accused.

The opposition says many of those arrested were arbitrarily arrested.

Venezuela's Foro Penal rights NGO says some 1,800 people remain behind bars over two months later, including 69 teenagers.

Saab denied that children were being held, but said that the law allowed for the arrest of minors aged between 14 and 17.

He refused to be drawn on how many protesters were still in custody, saying only that "many have been freed."

And he denied claims by the families of some of the prisoners that their loved ones had been tortured.

Only a handful of countries, including Russia, have recognized Maduro's claim to have won a third six-year term.

But opposition protests have largely petered out since September, when Gonzalez Urrutia went into exile in Spain after a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Saab said the 75-year-old former diplomat would be "automatically detained" if he returned to Venezuela.

Saab also said that opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who has been in hiding since the election, was under investigation but refused to say whether a warrant had been issued for her arrest.

A.Padmanabhan--DT