The preliminary hearing is scheduled for today where it will be decided whether or not to order a trial against six people accused of terrorism, among other crimes, judicial sources said.
Among the six accused are Adolfo Enrique Salas Vera (32), Rafael Ángel Duarte and Luis Alberto Hernández (36), nicknamed Electro, from whom they seized a modified assault rifle and a cell phone belonging to his escaped companion nicknamed El Mono Andrés.
These people were arrested on July 25 on Aeropuerto Avenue, La Fría, Táchira state. Such arrests occur after a confrontation between these people and a commission from Detachment 213 of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) located in the aforementioned town of Tachira.
This confrontation occurred after the aforementioned military detachment received a complaint about the theft of a Ford 350 truck that occurred in Caja Seca (Zulia) and which was transported to La Fría (Táchira), by subjects carrying assault rifles.
Upon receiving such a report, GNB officials become active and disseminate the news through internal media in order to locate the stolen vehicle. Second Sergeant Major Andry Giovanny Vela Alviarez heard the radio information and reports that he observed the aforementioned truck in the parking lot of the Humberto Laureano Sports Center, located on Aeropuerto Avenue in the town of La Fría.
Based on this information, a GNB commission went to the aforementioned place. Upon arrival, six subjects got out of both the stolen truck and a Fortuner truck also parked in that sector. There an exchange of shots began in the midst of which one of the criminals identified as Allan José González Silva (32) was killed, as well as second sergeant major Andry Giovanny Vela Alviarez, who minutes before had reported the location of the stolen vehicle. In that confrontation, Second Sergeant Major Edwar Alberto Parra Morales was injured.
Once the fight was over, Salas, Duarte and Hernández were arrested.
But, an hour before the confrontation, three other people identified as Edwin Alexander Chacón Herrera (18), Antony Abraham Ramírez Vargas (24), and Yeison Andrés Celis Muralla (24) were arrested. They were captured in a store where they sell generic detergents, located in the Francisco de Miranda urbanization, streets 5 and 6, specifically behind the La Fría GNB Command, according to their relatives, who deny that Chacón, Ramírez and Celis are linked to the subjects who stole the Ford 350 truck and then confronted the military.
”When they told us that our relatives had been detained by plainclothes officers, we went to the GNB in La Fría and they told us that in a few minutes they would release them,” the relatives said in a communication addressed to the Permanent Commission on Internal Policy of the National Assembly where they request to open an investigation.
In that communication, the relatives of Chacón, Ramírez and Celis narrate that after the GNB-La Fría official informed them about the imminent release of their relatives, a military commission arrived from San Cristóbal (Táchira) and took the six detainees away. ”The confrontation occurred at the Sports Center, specifically one kilometer from the place where our children were detained,” they state in the communication submitted to the National Assembly where they state that they do not understand the reasons for the arrest. ”We don’t know if they were detained because two men escaped from the scene of the incident and they wanted to solve the problem with our children,” they indicated.
The six detainees were charged with terrorism and resistance to authority, among other crimes, for which the Prosecutor’s Office 100 with Full Competence at the National Level requested to prosecute them.
This approach (the trial) must be debated in a preliminary hearing by the National Special Control Court 3 with Competence in Cases Linked to Crimes Associated with Terrorism located in the Caracas Palace of Justice.
Said court has attempted to hold the preliminary hearing on six occasions, but it has not been possible for various reasons. The aforementioned preliminary hearing is scheduled for this Thursday for the seventh time, judicial sources explained.
