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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 CARACAS 001213
SIPDIS
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/03/2021
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KIRF KCRM VE
SUBJECT: MURDER OF PRIEST PITS BRV AGAINST CHURCH
REF: A. CARACAS 959
¶B. VATICAN 70
CARACAS 00001213 001.2 OF 004

Classified By: Robert Downes, Political Counselor,
for Reason 1.4(b).

-------
Summary
-------

¶1. (C) The recent murder of Catholic Priest and senior
official of the Venezuelan Bishops´ Conference (CEV) has
touched off another round of recriminations between the
church and state. Father Jorge Pinango was found murdered in
a seedy Caracas hotel room on April 24, two days after
disappearing. Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez divulged
very personal details of the case and implied that the priest
had been murdered during a homosexual tryst with a
prostitute, an allegation that drew fiery criticism from the
church, and even caused some recoil within Chavismo. The
three theories about the case are: 1) a street crime
involving a hallucinogenic drug; 2) a prostitution case gone
bad; and 3) a government operation to sully Venezuela´s most
trusted institution. While the real facts of the case will
probably never be known, we would not completely discount the
pretty far-fetched government conspiracy theory, especially
given the government´s adversarial relationship with the
Catholic Church. End summary.

--------------------------
A Real Life Murder Mystery
--------------------------

¶2. (U) The body of Father Jorge Pinango, who was the
sub-secretary general of the CEV, was found April 24 in the
Bruno Hotel near Caracas´ Sabana Grande, an area dotted with
such pay-by-the-hour establishments. Pinango, 47, had last
been seen alive the early morning of April 22, when he
dropped off his niece in the tough Caracas neighborhood of El
Valle after a family graduation party. He was wearing street
clothes and not attired as a priest. When Pinango failed to
return that night to the CEV compound where he resided,
senior CEV bishops filed a formal missing persons report.
The priest´s putrefied body was discovered by the hotel´s
cleaning staff the following day. His Ford Explorer,
registered to the CEV, was found the next day, April 25, at a
shopping center in eastern Caracas. There were some reports
that a security camera at the shopping center showed more
than one person in the vehicle.

¶3. (U) The first press reports, based on testimony of hotel
staff, stated that the priest had driven to the hotel at 0540
the morning of April 22 in the company of a young man later
identified as Andres Rodriguez Rojas, 26, who was
subsequently apprehended on April 26. Rodriguez Rojas
reportedly left the room at 0830, paid for the next 24 hours,
and then departed the hotel in the Ford Explorer. Rodriguez
Rojas then reportedly ran up US$1,000 in bills on Pinango´s
credit cards. Investigators found two empty beer cans in the
room and a drug later identified as Rivotril (also called
Klonopin), an anti-anxiety prescription drug often abused as
a depressant. According to medical examiners, Pinango was
murdered by suffocation and had scratches on his nose and
mouth, and a wound in the anal area.

-------------------------
Attorney General Meltdown
-------------------------

¶4. (U) Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez gave a press
conference April 25 with very different details from those
described above. He asserted that Pinango´s companion was
dressed as a woman but was actually a man. He said the
priest had left the room a few hours after entering ask where
he could buy drugs (stimulants, Rodriguez said, not
depressants), departed the hotel, and returned three hours
later. Rodriguez spoke rather indelicately about the
injuries to Pinango´s private areas, clearly implying that
Pinango had been engaged in homosexual activity. Rodriguez
said he was forced to reveal these details because the media
was attempting to spin the priest´s death as an example of
Venezuela´s growing crime problem. When the head of
Venezuela´s technical police (CICPC), Marcos Chavez, publicly
contradicted many of Rodriguez´ facts and said the motive of
the murder appeared to be car theft, Rodriguez lashed out at
the police chief and announced plans to re-assign
investigators and bring Chavez up on charges for conspiring
to discredit him. Minister of Interior and Justice Jesse
Chacon came out as a sort of Bolivarian referee, declaring
that while it was fairly clear the priest was engaged in
homosexual activity, it was possible that the priest was
asleep at the time. Chacon also noted that the accused had a
history of drugging victims in order to rob them.

¶5. (U) Undeterred, Rodriguez staged a second, lengthy, and
emotional press conference in which he assured reporters that
the autopsy results would back up his initial claims of an
illicit tryst, and asserted that Pinango was partially
responsible for his own murder. He also hinted that Pinango
suffered from AIDS. Rodriguez then threatened to resign if
authorities covered up the truth, leading to a rambling
monologue about how Rodriguez had never aspired to the
position of Attorney General, was fed up with the BRV
bureaucracy, sick of having to have "14 bodyguards," and had
very few days left in office. (Note: Rodriguez´ seven-year
term ends next year.)

-----------------------------------
The "Burundanga" Drug: Scopolamine
-----------------------------------

¶6. (U) The autopsy results, however, showed no traces of a
stimulant in the priest´s system, according to press reports.
The toxicology study did confirm, however, the presence of
scopolamine, commonly known as the "date rape drug" or
"Burundanga" in Venezuela and Colombia, which reportedly
induces a hypnotic state and retrograde amnesia (i.e.,
victims do not remember details before ingestion). The drug
is commonly used in robberies in Caracas, with some reports
telling of victims aware enough to operate automatic tellers
at the bidding of the perpetrators. (Note: According to
Internet sources, the drug was once used as a crude truth
serum.)

------------------------------------------
Catholic Bishops Demand Fair Investigation
------------------------------------------

¶7. (U) The CEV issued a communique rejecting Rodriguez´
statements, accusing him of tainting the investigate. The
bishops admonished the government not to release information
at the preliminary stage of the investigation and to pursue
the facts of the case. The bishops said Pinango´s murder
once again showed the "grave situation of lack of security
and moral decay" affecting the country. CEV Vice President
and Archbishop of Coro Roberto Luckert, an outspoken BRV
critic, called for Rodriguez´ resignation because, he said,
the Attorney General lacked "the common sense and judgment"
to handle such a complicated murder case.

¶8. (C) CEV Secretary General Jose Ramon Viloria told Poloff
May 3 that the CEV had asked veteran criminal lawyer Juan
Marin Echeverria (who is also the lawyer for the NGO Sumate)
to represent the Church´s interests in the case. Viloria
said that Minister of Communications Willian Lara had visited
CEV headquarters after Rodriguez´ outburst and apologized on
behalf of the government. Chacon also phoned CEV President
Ubaldo Santana with apologies, and agreed to meet privately
with him on May 3. Viloria doubted the BRV was capable of
conducting a fair investigation of the priest´s murder.

--------------------------------------------- --
CARACAS 00001213 003.2 OF 004
Murder Theories: Conspiracy The Early Favorite
--------------------------------------------- --

¶9. (C) Viloria noted that there were three possible
explanations for Pinango´s murder. First, he said, Pinango
might have been murdered during an attempted robbery using
the hypnotic drug. Second, he said, it was possible Pinango
was engaged in a secretive encounter with a male prostitute.
While he said he was fairly sure Pinango was not a
homosexual, he thought it unlikely that the priest would
imprudently pick up a prostitute and drive with him to a
hotel in a CEV vehicle. Also, he recalled Pinango´s
professional performance during this three years at the CEV,
pointing out that Pinango had an appointment at CEV at 0800
that same morning that he uncharacteristically missed.
Pinango had never spent the night away from his CEV residence
before, Viloria added. He also said he had received word
that the hotel room had been reserved the day before,
suggesting the crime was not the result of a chance encounter.
¶10. (C) The third possibility was a government-inspired
attempt to discredit the Church, which Viloria thought at
least 60 percent likely. Information filtered to the CEV
from the autopsy indicated that there was no indication of
homosexual activity (read, no semen traces). He alleged that
the murder suspect had ties to the government, pointing out
that his defense attorney, Carlos Duran, is a prominent
pro-Chavez attorney who has defended revolutionaries such as
Lina Ron. According to Viloria, the suspect also had two
government police credentials, though he admitted the suspect
was also a known document counterfeiter. Viloria said the
bishops suspect that BRV authorities had wanted to kidnap
Pinango, apply the "truth serum" drug, and then extract
information about former CEV President (and ardent Chavez
foe) Baltazar Porras. Viloria said the Pinango murder had
put all of the bishops on alert against similar crimes being
committed against them.

-------------------------
The Victim Claims Torture
-------------------------
¶11. (U) Suspect Andres Rodriguez Rojas, through his attorney,
alleged he was innocent of the murder charges. Attorney
Carlos Duran said his client boarded the priest´s vehicle
with the intention of applying the sleeping drug Rivotril,
but the latter became nervous when he suspected they were
being followed. Duran claims Venezuelan police held his
client for several days, applying torture methods to get a
confession. Rodriguez Rojas was then taken to a bus station
where, Duran asserted, police staged a public arrest.

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Comment
-------

¶12. (C) This case will no doubt join the pantheon of
Venezuela´s unsolved mysteries, such as the car-bombing of
prosecutor Danilo Anderson and the burning death of the
soldiers at Fuerte Mara. An investigation free of political
tint is all but impossible. We of course cannot draw a
conclusion about how or why Pinango was murdered. The idea
of BRV operation to discredit the Catholic Church is pretty
far-fetched, but not out of the realm of possibility,
especially given the Church´s recent sparring with the BRV
over the Fadoul murders (ref a) and the general tension
between the two institutions. Prior to that scrap, it had
appeared that the BRV and the Church under Urosa had been
seeking a closer relationship, and Bolivarian sources are now
pushing the idea of a "moderate" Church faction led by Urosa,
challenged by a radical, "golpista" faction, whose patron was
retired Cardinal Lara. The BRV´s suggestion of this kind of
"schism" in the Church will do nothing to calm the waters.
Also notable is Attorney General Rodriguez´ near implosion
and damage control efforts by other Bolivarians. Rodriguez´
trademark verbal incontinence has been running fairly wild
lately, causing us to wonder if the increasingly uneven A/G
will reach the end of his term.
BROWNFIELD