An act of support for terrorism qualifies the words of U.S. President Donald Trump, to the Venezuelan terrorist Oscar Pérez, an ex-policeman who shot and threw grenades against two public buildings on June 27, 2017 – after robbing a helicopter of the Venezuelan scientific police, and then carried out other acts of a terrorist nature.
In his speech at the International University of Miami on February 19, Trump called him a “brave Venezuelan police officer” and “extraordinary and great person.” His words were broadcast in the city of Miami, in an act with the community of Venezuelans living in that country, in what seemed an attempt to win over the inhabitants of the state of Florida with a view on the elections of 2020.
Trump said about Pérez: “He is a brave Venezuelan police officer, you know the story. In June of 2017, Oscar piloted a helicopter over the city of Baruta with a pennant that referred to Article 350 of the Constitution of Venezuela,” omitting that Pérez carried out an armed attack in which he threw grenades and fired shots at public buildings where unarmed civilians worked.
“Oscar said he wanted to deliver and give hope to the people, that he loved the people, fought for the people and the people loved Oscar. But Oscar was shot and killed by these Venezuelan thugs, you already know the story: the Venezuelan security forces, which terribly decimated him”, he said.
The US president added: “Oscar gave his life for the freedom of his people, and today we have freedom thanks to extraordinary and great people like Oscar.”
Trump was accompanied by Pérez’s mother, who also spoke and asked for “justice” for her son, which was acclaimed by the attendees.
Who was Oscar Pérez?
On June 27, 2017, Oscar Pérez used his status as an inspector assigned to the Air Transport Division of Cicpc, to steal a helicopter from that agency and, from there, execute an armed attack against the headquarters of the Supreme Court of Justice. (TSJ) and the Ministry of Popular Power for Interior Relations, Justice and Peace (Mpprijp) in Caracas. He and his companions fired 15 shots at the Mpprijp building on Urdaneta Avenue, where a party was held to mark the Day of the Journalist, and then four grenades were thrown at the TSJ , where a school that, fortunately, had already been emptied.
Oscar Pérez and unidentified people reading the communiqué against the national government. The video, judging by its lighting, clothing and appearance of those who appear there, has a rather cinematic look.
It is noteworthy that the attitude of many media when the attack occurred was to dismiss and even imply that Oscar Pérez worked for the government and performed an auto-attack [false flag].
Subsequently, on August 6, 2017, the ex-military officer Juan Carlos Caguaripano led a group that carried out an armed attack against the Paramacay Military Fort, in the city of Valencia, Carabobo state, in order to steal weapons. After the attack, carried out mainly by civilians, 18 people were captured. Oscar Pérez said in a video on social networks that he was related to the operation .
Subsequently, on December 18, 2017, Pérez was implicated in the attack on a Command of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) located in Laguneta de la Montaña, in San Pedro de Los Altos, Miranda state. Accompanied by a group of men in ski masks, he subdued troops and stole 26 rifles, weapons and ammunition. Pérez posted a video on his Twitter account showing how they extracted the weapons.
One might wonder how anyone in the United States would carry out terrorist acts similar to those carried out by Oscar Pérez, and what would happen if a Head of State from another country claimed these facts and treated their authors as heroes.
Two policemen were killed by Pérez’s group
On January 15, 2018, Oscar Pérez and his terrorist group were surrounded in a house in El Junquito, west of Caracas. While negotiating the conditions for their release, “they opened fire on the officials in charge of their capture and tried to detonate a vehicle loaded with explosives, with the unfortunate balance of two officials of the Bolivarian National Police (PNB) deceased and 5 seriously injured”, said a statement from the Ministry for Internal Relations.
“Our troops were attacked by the violent ones when the conditions for their delivery and safekeeping were being negotiated. The members of this terrorist cell that carried out armed resistance were killed and five criminals were captured and detained,” the statement said. Among the deceased were Oscar Perez himself.
On January 18, Diosdado Cabello disseminated details of what had happened .“They said one thing to those who were going to negotiate, but in social networks they said another,” Cabello said about the videos that Pérez and his group shared on Instagram through an account, EquilibrioGV, currently closed . They said: “We are going to deliver,” but in social networks they said: “They are massacring us,” Cabello said.
One of the people killed by Pérez’s group was Heyker Vásquez, an intelligence officer and member of the Las Tres Raíces collective on January 23. Cabello pointed out that Vásquez “is sent to look for them” (the people of Oscar Pérez), to help them in the negotiation. “They send him to look for him because Díaz Pimentel (one of the members of Oscar Pérez’s group) is from the “23 de enero” neighbourhood and he knew Heyker. He went to talk twice with them to give themselves up. They asked Heyker for cigarettes, he brought them cigarettes and said, ‘Tell your boss we’re going to give up.’ ”
Cabello explained that, as a result of the negotiation, police officers were on two vehicles to the site to stop the armed group. When they get out of the car, “his very friend, Diaz Pimentel, murdered him as soon as he got off the car, with a shot in the chest. And they threw grenades at the 2 vehicles where the people who were going to arrest him were. He never manifested a true will to surrender!”
Even though many opposition journalists and opinion leaders initially claimed that Oscar Pérez worked for the government and that the June 27 attack was an “auto-attack”, the international media took it upon themselves to clean up their reputation and turn the ex-policeman into a “hero”, such as was done in the past with Orlando Bosch, Luis Posada Carriles and other terrorists involved in terrible events, such as the bombing of a the plane of Cubana de Aviación on October 6, 1976, in which 73 people died .
Translated by JRE. Edited for English grammar by TS.
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