T
oday marks exactly one month since the murder of five men and one woman militants of the Bolívar and Zamora Revolutionary Current in the Ticoporo Forest Reserve, municipality of Sucre in the state of Barinas. José Gerardo Rojas, Alexis Ontiveros Mora, Eudis Jhoncley Rojas Peña, Kevin Alirio Navas Rodríguez, Milagdis Oliday Garrido Navas and Manuel Cordero Benítez were all brutally massacred by a group of armed men, in a calculated, planned and executed operation to attack this organization and its political, social and organizational work in favour of the construction of people’s power, peace, sovereignty and democracy in Venezuela.
The condemnation and rejection of this horrendous crime by the most diverse social and political organizations in Venezuela and different parts of the world, by social and political leaders, was unanimous, as soon as the fact was publicly known: compañeros and compañeras from the Commune of El Maizal, the Patriotic Force Alexis Vive, the Movimiento de Pobladores, the Red Nacional de Comuneros, the Colectivo Surgentes, Alba Movimientos, the Otra Escuela, the Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos, the Cloc Vía Campesina, the Frente Patria Grande, the Movimiento Sin Tierras of Brazil, among many others, added their voices to solidarity and demand investigation and justice. That is why we must emphasize the rejection and condemnation, as well as the demand for investigation and justice, made a few hours after the massacre, by the vice-president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, comrade Diosdado Cabello and congressman Julio Chávez, in the context of the Sao Paulo Forum. Likewise, the governor of Apure, Ramón Carrizalez, the governor of Barinas, Argenis Chávez, and the defender of the people, Alfredo Ruiz, added their voices.
At first, the investigations, led by a team of CICPC professionals, were well on track. Thus, at this point there is a detainee, who has already been presented before the courts and whose case is being prosecuted by the 7th Prosecutor’s Office of Barinas through the 1st Control Court of Socopó. Advanced investigations indicate that the perpetrators of the massacre are part of a gang involved in drug trafficking and vehicle theft, and some names have been given as suspects involved in the material execution of the massacre. However, none of this is conclusive and these people have not yet been apprehended. We recognize the effort made so far, but we understand that more forcefulness is needed in this direction, because at the end of the day the case is not solved and the guilty remain free.
Today, a month after the occurrence of this crime, which affects the families of the victims, the militancy of La Corriente and Chavismo in general, we once again raise our voice to demand that the competent authorities, the criminal investigation, justice and human rights authorities take decisive and coordinated action to speed up and deepen the investigations and the judicial process. A crime of the magnitude of the Ticoporo Massacre must mobilize the greatest will, effort and resources on the part of the competent authorities in order to establish the truth, determine the material and intellectual authorship of the crime, and ensure justice. Impunity only favours those who committed the crime and the forces that are advancing in the intention of expanding the economic and political crimes in our country.
In this sense, the militancy of La Corriente, family members and comrades in struggle, will mobilize the public prosecutor’s office in Barinas to present these demands in the street. We will also begin a Twitter session at 6 p.m. to continue making the Ticoporo Massacre visible and demanding justice, which will use the hashtag #JusticiaPorMasacreDeTicoporo.
We will continue to organize and mobilize to demand justice and fight impunity!
Honour and Glory to the martyrs of Ticoporo!
Coordinación Nacional Corriente Revolucionaria Bolívar y Zamora
