US embassy cable - 05CARACAS2317

C O N F I D E N T I A L  CARACAS 002317 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
NSC FOR CBARTON 
USCINCSO ALSO FOR POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/25/2014 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, VE 
SUBJECT: ATTORNEY GENERAL ANNOUNCES INVESTIGATION AGAINST 
CARACAS DAILY 
 
 
Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ABELARDO A. ARIAS 1.4 (d) 
 
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SUMMARY 
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1. (C) Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez announced the launch 
of a criminal investigation against Caracas daily El 
Universal July 27.  The Attorney General called the paper's 
July 25 editorial entitled "Justice Kneels Down" "a 
journalistic plot taken from the next chapter in the CIA's 
Manual of Coup-Plotting."  In his announcement, Rodriguez 
assumed El Universal's guilt before the investigation had 
even begun, stating that the editorial "presumably defamed 
the Public Ministry and the Judicial Branch."  He also 
alleged that Juan Martin Echeverria, a well-known Venezuelan 
defense lawyer and member of the paper's editorial board, was 
using the paper to defend his clients "in the press and not 
the court."  El Universal said the Attorney General's 
investigation was a political attempt to discredit 
Echeverria. More importantly, the Attorney General's effort 
to criminalize opinion pieces will undoubtedly have a 
chilling effect on press freedom.  End Summary. 
 
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Justice Kneels Down 
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2. (U) Leading Caracas daily El Universal published an 
editorial July 25 entitled "Justice Kneels Down," which ran 
as a side-bar on the paper's front page and was not 
attributed.  The editorial said judicial impunity was costing 
the Attorney General and the courts their legitimacy and 
cited a study by Venezuelan NGO Cofavic highlighting the need 
for justice based on facts and not politics.  El Universal 
closed the piece with an appeal for a "professional, 
autonomous and objective" judiciary.  The paper's informal 
translation of the piece follows: 
 
Subordinating justice to ideology and depriving it of 
autonomy and effectiveness is like a train running off the 
rails.  The Attorney General Office and courts are 
increasingly losing legitimacy. 
 
News focus on crime, guerrilla, paramilitary and widespread 
insecurity.  However, the criminal issue should be the 
central piece, as convictions are in short supply and 
impunity prevails. 
 
In this connection, human rights NGO Cofavic director 
analyzed specific modus operandi that shows abnormalities in 
security corps and justice administration.  This is a serious 
warning because any and all Venezuelans are at high risk. 
 
As stated by Cofavic, a politically biased and ineffective 
criminal system and lack of a criminal policy to prevent and 
reduce crime in a scientific, reasonable way, result in 
growing insecurity. 
 
Criminal justice should be professional and go along with 
prevention, investigation, interdiction and indictment. 
Justice affects directly society.  For this reason, 
government remarks and biased statistics result in a feeling 
of insecurity. 
 
Most guidelines and social control procedures need to be 
revised.  Reasonable anti-poverty efforts with the 
involvement of all social, economic and political sectors 
should take absolute priority.  It is not an exclusive fight, 
but of the whole nation. 
 
There is need to work closely with domestic and foreign 
experts, keep the police decentralization schedule, upgrade 
local coordination mechanisms and strengthen justice by 
making it professional, autonomous and objective.  This is 
the citizens' highest desire. 
 
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A "Very Serious" Editorial 
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3. (U) Rodriguez claimed El Universal's editorial was part of 
a journalistic plot to weaken Venezuelan institutions taken 
 
 
from the next chapter of the CIA's alleged "Manual of 
Coup-Plotting." "What is it they want," Rodriguez asked, "to 
intimidate the Public Ministry, to corner the Public 
Ministry, to disqualify the Public Ministry?"  When 
questioned as to the difference between his own prior 
criticisms of Venezuelan criminal justice and those expressed 
in the editorial, Rodriguez countered that while his own 
criticisms were made in the spirit of institutional 
improvement, El Universal was attempting to discredit the 
Public Ministry.  As further evidence of a plot, Rodriguez 
also linked the editorial to recent criticism of his ministry 
by the Commission of Andean Jurists, and the Mexican and 
Argentine ombudsmen. 
 
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Prosecution: Opening A Case To Find A Crime 
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4. (C) Rodriguez announced to the press July 27 that the 
prosecution would open an investigation "to see if there is 
something that can be punished or not."  The Attorney General 
stated that he had asked the prosecution to conclude the 
investigation as quickly as possible.  El Universal editor 
Elides Rojas told the press July 28 that the Attorney General 
was acting under the presumption that a crime had been 
committed. He denied the Attorney General's allegation, 
stating that "The editorial merely provides context for a 
well-known public debate." El Universal editor Taisa Media 
told Embassy officials July 29 that she could not find a 
basis for criminal charges in the editorial.  She claimed the 
Attorney General was trying to impress Venezuelan President 
Hugo Chavez by acting "more catholic than the Pope" in his 
fervor to attack perceived enemies. 
 
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The Real Target Of The Attorney General? 
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5. (C) In opening the investigation against El Universal, 
Rodriguez accused the paper of lending its pages to the 
defense of prominent lawyer and member of the editorial board 
Juan Martin Echeverria's clients.  Rodriguez declared, "It 
would appear that (Echeverria) is using the daily in order to 
defend his clients in the press and not in court."  Rodriguez 
acknowledged that there might be some confusion as to whether 
the prosecution was investigating the paper or Echeverria, 
but he held the paper ultimately responsible for "assuming a 
defense that one ought to make in court."  El Universal 
editor Rojas told the press that the Attorney General's 
investigation was a political attempt to discredit Echeverria 
and destroy his law practice.  Still, El Universal editor 
Media told Embassy officials that the editorial board was 
split as to whether the paper or Echeverria was the Attorney 
General's prime target. 
 
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COMMENT 
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6. (C) Whether Echeverria or El Universal is the ultimate 
target of the Attorney General's investigation, his attempt 
to essentially criminalize opinion pieces will have a 
chilling effect on the increasingly beleaguered Venezuelan 
press.  Media outlets - already weighed down by a penal code 
that punishes dissent - are likely to intensify their efforts 
at self-censorship in an effort to protect themselves from 
further reprisals.  This is an issue on which most of the 
world's independent media should be able to agree.  It seems 
to be fertile territory for an op-ed. 
Brownfield 
 
 
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      2005CARACA02317 - CONFIDENTIAL