The "Take-Over" of Caracas Police HQ Was Necessary
By Alex Main - reporting from Caracas, Venezuela
November 20, 2002
Publisher's Note: Over the past few days, AP, Reuters and other simulators of international public opinion have produced a number of articles that comment on the Venezuelan National Guard's "takeover" of the Caracas Metropolitan police stations. What's missing in most of these articles is context. The following article, by Alex Main, provides a little background information on the PM that helps understand why the Venezuelan government decided to have it de-clawed.
I met Alex Main last June, while I reported from the Venezuelan capital. A clean-cut young man from the United States (he was wearing a suit when I met him), he had recently arrived in Caracas to see, with his own eyes, what was happening. We went, together, to the popular barrio of San Juan and spoke directly with many of the people there that the U.S. commercial media correspondents never allow to be heard. Main has subsequently become an important organizer of international solidarity efforts with Venezuelan democracy, and an honest set of eyes and ears for the rest of us. - Al Giordano
A Brief History of Alfredo Peña's Little Army
By Alex Main - reporting from Caracas
In the poorer districts of Caracas, the Policia Metropolitana (PM) has never been looked upon with very high regard. Judging by what I've heard and seen, and on many occasions I've had the opportunity to see the PM at work in the city center, this police force is probably about as brutal and corrupt as Mexico's Federales. In fact, there's a local saying here that goes something like this: better to fall into the hands of muggers than into the hands of the PM.
As if this wasn't enough, since the beginning of this year the PM has acquired another appealing feature: it has become an instrument of brutal repression of pro-governmental demonstrations. Under the authority of the greater Caracas mayor Alfredo Peña, one of Chavez' most notorious opponents, the "Metropolitana" has grown increasingly effective at breaking up "Chavista" demonstrations through the systematic use of massive doses of highly potent tear gas and, more and more frequently, through the use of firearms loaded with real bullets....
[The full article is available at <http://www.narconews.com/article.php3?ArticleID=541>.] -- Yoshie
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