Latin America
Related: About this forumVenezuela recovers remains of 14 missing miners
Venezuela recovers remains of 14 missing miners
Source: AP
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) Searchers on Monday recovered the remains of 14 people belonging to a group of over 20 missing miners believed to have been killed by a gang seeking control over a wildcat gold claim in southeastern Venezuela, government officials said.
Police investigating the massacre made the grisly discovery in an area of jungle in Bolivar state near where the miners disappeared a week ago, Attorney General Luisa Ortega said in an interview with Globovision.
The massacre last week rocked Venezuelans accustomed to morbid tales of violence in a country with one of the world's highest homicide rates and widespread impunity. Fearing unrest after the state's governor denied the killings took place and outraged relatives blocked a highway to Brazil in protest, President Nicolas Maduro's government dispatched more than 1,000 soldiers and Cabinet officials to search for the missing miners.
The circumstances behind the massacre remain unclear. Ortega said she believes 21 people were killed by a criminal gang led by an Ecuadorean. But opposition politicians and relatives who have said they witnessed the attack put the number at 28 and contend local officials were involved, a claim the government denies.
http://news.yahoo.com/venezuela-recovers-remains-4-missing-miners-181044275.html;_ylt=A0LEV1dfDuhWgJsAOjRXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEydGY5OGpvBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjExNTlfMQRzZWMDc2M-
Marksman_91
(2,035 posts)TRANSLATION:
[PSUV] Governor Rangel Silva - "There was no such massacre"
Ombudsman Saab - "Everything indicates that there was an atrocious act"
Attorney General Ortega Diaz - "There were 16 miners who were massacred"
Saab - "There were 14 miners who were massacred"
Ortega Diaz - "We're very sure they are 21"
Ortega Diaz - "They're 17, and the search is over"
Bacchus4.0
(6,837 posts)Amazing how the government denied the massacre to begin with and were slow to react only after the event started gaining publicity.