Venezuela’s Attorney General, Luisa Ortega Díaz, said Wednesday that the Public Ministry is moving forward with investigations regarding the coup d’état of April 11, 2002, perpetrated by right-wing factions at home and abroad.

“So far we have obtained sentences for 10 functionaries that were at the time acting as agents of the Caracas Metropolitan Police, and we have seven other trials being prepared, that is to say, in the investigation phase,” Ortega said in an exclusive interview with teleSUR.

“The ten people that were sentenced were done so for the crimes of breaking and entering, homicide, torture and violation of international pacts and conventions, abuse of power and unlawful detention,” Ortega said.

She added that “so far 17 people have been summoned for charges that have not appeared… and we are considering other coercive means to get them to appear at the Public Ministry to face the charges.”

She indicated that there are “21 people fleeing Venezuelan justice, among them civilians and military.”

The Venezuelan authority recalled that the events of April 2002 “have many facets, many situations occurred in which human rights were violated, where crimes against humanity were committed, crimes that threatened the physical integrity of persons and their lives, and so it was necessary to gather many elements.”

Some of those elements “unfortunately disappeared,” she said, “because at the time, as part of the conspiracy, as part of the coup d’état, evidence was destroyed,” she said.

Despite this, the attorney general assured that “we are advancing and we are going to have answers, we are going to give satisfactory results not just for the victims, for the families of the victims that were able to survive, but also for all the Venezuelan people and it will serve as an example for the peoples of the world.”

The coup on April 11, 2002, was headed by the businessman Pedro Carmona Estanga, orchestrated by opposition groups of the extreme right, and supported by private media and factions of imperial powers.

The coup leaders abolished the constitution and dissolved the government, as well as persecuting government ministers and other representatives of the administration of President Chávez.

Despite these violent acts, the Venezuelan people poured out into the streets to denounce the coup and reclaim their freedom, demanding the return of President Chávez, who had been kidnapped.

President Chávez returned to elected office on April 13, 2002, with the support of the people and loyal members of the military.

Correo del Orinoco / Press – Venezuelan Embassy to the U.S. / April 12, 2012