September 11: Lopez Trial Intensifies

Leopoldo Lopez won a stunning courtroom victory today when forensic investigators present at the scene of the crime admitted that the attorney general’s office in Caracas was not the target of an arson attack, as the government has maintained throughout this year. One of the most serious charges Leopoldo Lopez is facing is that he was responsible for the alleged fire at the attorney general’s office on February 12.

Luis Alberto Salazar, a prosecution witness, walked the court through a series of photographs showing damage sustained by the attorney general’s office on February 12. Salazar did not mention the word “fire” once, nor any other word that might suggest a fire had taken place.

The second prosecution witness, Jorge Honsy, said that he observed “signs of combustion” near the front gate of the building. Honsy was the man in charge of collecting evidence from the crime scene. Among the objects he collected, Honsy testified, were a broken bottle and a piece of cloth that “smelled like gasoline”.

However, during cross-examination, Honsy conceded that there was no real evidence that a fire had taken place.

Juan Carlos Gutierrez, one of Lopez’s lawyers, asked Honsy, “Were there signs of a fire in the library? Were books or documents burned?”, to which Honsy replied simply, “No”.

Honsy also conceded that he is not qualified to say with any certainty that the bottle and cloth he found actually ever contained any kind of combustible liquid.

Leopoldo Lopez was given the opportunity to speak, during which time he said:

The Public Ministry is trying to separate that which is inseparable. The attack on the Public Ministry took place at 3:40 PM as a consequence of the murders of Bassil da Costa and Juancho Montoya at 2:30 PM that same day. We cannot ignore the fact that the security forces retreated to the Public Ministry, and that immediately afterwards the assault by SEBIN and pro-government para-police groups began. Who gave the order? That must all be decided during this trial… the reality is that the people who killed Bassil and Juancho are police officers. The reality is that on February 12 Maduro set up an ambush, who one day prior announced that the opposition march [scheduled for the next day] would suffer deaths.

Venezuela’s Oldest Newspaper Nears End

El Impulso, Venezuela’s oldest currently circulating newspaper, announced last night that it was being forced to stop its operations due to a lack of paper. This Sunday’s edition would have been the newspaper’s last.

Surprisingly, the editor of the newspaper, Carlos Eduardo Carmona, announced today that the paper was involved in talks with the government to accelerate the delivery of printing paper in order to stop the publication’s demise. The paper, which had already been paid for, is expected to reach the newspaper in Barquisimeto tomorrow or Saturday.

Eight Dead in Maracay Hospital of Unknown Disease

The president of the Colegio Medico de Aragua, Angel Sarmiento, announced today that eight people have died in the Central Hospital in Maracay of an unknown disease. All the deaths occurred within the past 72 hours.

According to Sarmiento, the victims – four children and four adults – arrived at different times from different areas of Aragua state showing the same symptoms. Sarmiento stresses that there was no geographical link between the victims.

While Sarmiento said that the disease was probably not Ebola, it does appear to be haemorrhagic in nature. All four patients began showing “small haemorrhages” around their bodies which grew in intensity over the course of 72 hours, resulting in fever and sepsis leading to death.

Sarmiento said that doctors do not yet know if they are dealing with a bacteria or a virus. He also called on the citizens of the state to refrain from going to the hospital unless it is an emergency.

Finally, a picture of Maria Corina Machado speaking at a neighbourhood assembly today in Guayana state: