A truck belonging to the national electric company was set on fire this afternoon in San Cristóbal, capital of the Venezuelan state of Táchira, by hooded vandals. Here’s the story, via Aporrea:
A vehicle registered to the Venezuelan national electric company, Corpoelec, which was at the Catholic University of Táchira in San Cristóbal to serve the student community, was hijacked and burned in front of the university’s main building, located in the La Guayana sector of the city.
According to Major-General Efraín Velasco Lugo, Commandant of the Strategic Integral Development Region of Los Andes, the terrorist act was carried out by a group of approximately 40 hooded individuals, who at around 1:00 p.m. tried to cut off the neighboring roadways to the university and attacked persons passing through the sector with rocks and firecrackers.
Velasco Lugo said that when security officers arrived at the scene to re-establish order, the hooded men hid in the office building, taking advantage of the respect for university autonomy that exists in the land.
Velasco Lugo also mentioned that they tried several times to exit the university to provoke chaos and that they were unable to do so in the face of the effective response of the police and military officers. They then opted to hijack the Corpoelec vehicle which was there, take it out in front of the university, and burn it, around 5:00 p.m.
Velasco Lugo stated that the way these hooded men acted follows the same pattern of the violent, terrorist acts which occurred during March and April of this year, when there were guarimbas in Táchira, which affected all of the local residents.
Major-General Velasco Lugo doubts that students were the ones responsible for promoting these actions, saying that these were infiltrators, and for that reason, he invited the university community to join in the eradication of violence in their schools, and to denounce those who try to use the image of the university to generate chaos.
The commandant reiterated that he would not allow these disturbing actions to occur, and ratified his commitment to guarantee peace and order to benefit all the people of Táchira.
Translation mine.
Ah yes, that ever-peaceful and democratic Venezuelan opposition. Yet again, when confronted with their own failure, they reach for the ol’ guarimba. Will they stop at nothing to achieve their peaceful, democratic, public-spirited goals?
