Powerful interests at transnational mining corporation Crystallex said to be "responsible for political outrage"

VHeadline Venezuela News reports: Some 400 residents of the south Bolivar State township of Tumeremo have been holding a vigil at the Palace of Justice in Ciudad Guayana since Tuesday afternoon demanding the release of newly-elected Sifontes Mayor Carlos Chancellor, a former miner who received the highest percentage of votes in any elected office of the state of Bolivar in last Sunday's vote, winning 8,176 votes i.e. more than double the PSUV's candidate, Marlene Vargas, who got just 3,650.

Chancellor has been held in prison without trial and/or sentence since February 2007, and has been denied the right to speak or write to the media ... and despite all this he won the local election. He is being held in Caroni municipal police cells in Ciudad Guayana where his lawyers, as well as PPT deputy Pastora Medina, say they cannot explain any legal reason why he has not been tried or set free.

Both accuse newly-elected PSUV Governor Francisco Rangel Gomez and former Sifontes Mayor Marlene Vargas adding "powerful interests at the transnational mining corporation Crystallex" as being "responsible for this political outrage."

Chancellor's controversial social struggle has been conducted over the last twenty years including prominence as leader of the regional organization of the La Causa R party as well as deputy mayor and councilman. On Wednesday, September 7, 2005, as a councilman in the Sifontes municipality and together with several thousand miners, he staged what was described as an "illegal" protest setting up barricades blocking the main interstate highway between Venezuela and Brazil at Kiolometer 88.

The Chavez government sent in troops to violently quell the protest and arrest the alleged ring leaders. Chancellor avoided capture for some time but then surrendered to face trial but was subjected to custodial remand where he remains to this day, without appeal or date set for an eventual trial.

Chancellor was listed as a candidate for Patria Para Todos (PPT) and the Venezuelan Communist Party (PCV) in last Sunday's local elections and received indirect support from much of the opposition, principally from gubernatorial contender Andres Velasquez, a former Governor and former president of the Venezuelan Guayana Corporation (CVG) who has been extremely critical of incumbent PSUV Governor Francisco Rangel Gomez.

Chancellor's lawyers and AN deputy Medina had asked for him to be granted bail to enable him to take up his elected post as Sifontes Mayor pending trial but after more 48 hours of protests, the judge appointed to handle the case three years ago has still not made any ruling.

Deputy Medina has now alleged that Crystallex' lawyers, with the backing of Governor Rangel Gomez, had gone to the Palace of Justice to oppose any application that would have set Chancellor free on bail or afforded him a fair trial.

VHeadline Venzuela News
vheadline@gmail.com

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