Caracas, Venezuela, Dec 9, 2016 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Venezuelan bishops' justice and peace commission on Tuesday repudiated the murders of 12 young men by an operation of the Liberation of the People, a government security team meant to combat crime and homicide.
The bodies of 12 youths were found in a mass grave in Barlovento, in Miranda state, Nov. 28. They had been missing since Oct. 15 after they were picked up by members of the Liberation of the People, created in July 2015 by President Nicolás Maduro and composed of police and government agents.
However, the human rights NGO Provea reported that since its inception, the Liberation of the People have been involved in more than 750 extrajudicial deaths.
The Venezuelan bishops Dec. 6 expressed their “profound sorrow over the events in the Barlovento region” and pointed out that these were “punishable acts.”
The bishops disowned the “indiscriminate” way the Liberation of the People operates and that “the government authorities have not fulfilled their duty to prevent the violation of human rights” that have been committed “throughout the entire country.”
They also criticized the “haughty and deaf attitude of the government authorities” who “refuse to abide by international jurisprudence” as well as the recommendations of NGOs “to respect and guarantee human rights”. They likewise denounced the “bellicose, aggressive, and discriminatory language” that justifies the denial of human dignity “and legitimizes the ongoing use of violence as a means to solve the problems that are affecting society.”
They therefore urged the public authorities to put “into actual effect the laws and regulations developed by the Inter-American Convention on the Forced Disappearance of Persons and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.”
They also encouraged Catholics and people of good will to be “defenders and cultivators of human life in all its stages; not participating in or collaborating in actions that attack the right to life, thus fulfilling their duty as Christians and citizens that build and work for peace” as well as “rejecting all language” that legitimizes “violence and the counterculture of death.”
Finally, they expressed their solidarity “with the relatives of the 12 murdered youths, for whom we persistently pray to God, that he may give them strength and consolation in these painful moments and that he would allow swift and effective justice, that leaves no room for impunity.”
The Public Ministry reported Dec. 7 that they will charge Major Luis Eduardo Romero Arcia and Captain Daniel Contreras Primera, both of the Venezuelan Army, for alleged responsibility for the torture and subsequent death of the 12 persons.
Article Archive
In Venezuela, bishops condemn murder of 12 youths by government agents
Related Articles • More Articles
Outer details of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Chicago. / Credit: Eric Allix RogersCNA Staff, May 15, 2024 / 12:12 pm (CNA).Catholics and city preservationists in Chicago are scrambling to try to preserve a historic parish on the city's North Side, one that has survived a century of the city's development including being fully moved to a new location after it was first built. Our Lady of Lourdes Parish will hold its final Mass on Sunday, May 19, before the parish merges with nearby St. Mary of the Lake. The consolidation is part of the Archdiocese of Chicago's ongoing "Renew My Church" initiative that has closed and merged dozens of parishes in order to address shrinking budgets and priest shortages. The archdiocese announced the Lourdes parish merger in 2021. Katerina Garcia, the president of the Our Lady of Lourdes Church Preservation Society, told "EWTN News Nightly" anchor Tracy Sabol this week that parishioners at the parish dispute ...
Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-yan, SJ, archbishop of Hong Kong, China. / Credit: Daniel IbáñezRome Newsroom, May 15, 2024 / 14:17 pm (CNA).Cardinal Stephen Chow recently visited three Catholic dioceses in mainland China, one year after the bishop of Hong Kong's first historic trip to Beijing.Chow led a 10-person delegation of Catholics from Hong Kong to the southern Chinese cities of Guangzhou, Shantou, and Shenzhen in April in his second official visit to China since becoming bishop of Hong Kong."We brought our people to have an encounter … where we share common concerns, for example, youth ministry, catechism, marriage and family," Chow said in a video interview published May 5.Here is a look at some of the Catholic communities Chow visited:St. Joseph's Cathedral in ShantouSt. Joseph's Cathedral in Shantou, China. Credit: Kc1446 at Chinese Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsHundreds of Chinese Catholics attended a Mass in St. Joseph's Cathedral in Shantou concelebrated...
Stained-glass window at the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis. / Credit: Ella Manthey/ShutterstockSt. Louis, Mo., May 15, 2024 / 14:47 pm (CNA).Two St. Louis parishes that appealed to the Vatican after Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski ordered them to merge last year have had their appeals upheld by the Holy See, reversing the archbishop's prior decision.As part of the archdiocese's major pastoral planning initiative dubbed "All Things New," Rozanski announced a year ago that the number of parishes would be reduced by nearly 50 by way of parish mergers and closures.Under canon law, a diocesan bishop has the authority to alter parishes, but only for a just reason specific to each parish. Concern for souls must be the principal motivation for modifying a parish.Amid the All Things New process, a number of parishes announced their intention to send appeals to the Vatican, putting aspects of the mergers planned for the parishes on hold until the Dicastery for the Clergy's rulings. Af...