But it is not funny at all. Yesterday three of the Venezuelan opposition were convicted of crimes without proof and condemned to 30 years in prison, all while other known criminals are not only free, but openly rewarded.
I am linking to a post from a Venezuelan blogger,
Venezuela News And ViewsVenezuela News And Views
Cuba's style justice in Venezuela
I have said that I would take a break for a week or two unless some really big news came along. The condemnation of Forero, Simonovis and Vivas would not have been enough for me to post. Their sentence to 30 years is more than enough.
In any civilized country application of the maximum sentence allowed is always a delicate matter. Usually it requires several of the following:
-the weapon murder
-a direct link with the victim
-premeditation
-an unusually cruel way to kill
-be caught in the act
-and other such reasons of equal weight
In Venezuela which abolished early death penalty the maximum sentence was 30 years, and it was applied as sparingly as the death penalty was applied elsewhere, at least during the democratic period of Venezuela which ended in February 2004. This sentence today is thus not the sentence of a democracy, it is a political sentence, just as those that are applied in Cuba to any dissident of the regime when this one needs to silence someone or needs to scare a few other folks.
5 comments:
Great cartoon!
Christopher Hamilton
The Right Opinion, for the Right Wing
Miguel at Devil’s Excrement also has a posting about the sentences, along with a photo that shows Chavista Justice at work.
The article is not yet up at his old site.
A sad an scary day for us venezuelans. There's no law or justice anymore here.
It does seem that that totalitarianism is on the march around the world. There doesn't seem to be anybody standing up to Chavez. Our president thinks we should negotiate with these thugs.
How sad and difficult. I'll pray for them and their families and your friends there.
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