Once portrayed as a hero, a slain Venezuelan prosecutor now seems less heroic as bribe allegations emerge.

BY PHIL GUNSON
Special to the Herald

CARACAS - Venezuelan prosecutor Danilo Anderson was awarded a posthumous medal and buried as a martyr of President Hugo Chávez's leftist ``revolution.''

But now there's evidence that Anderson, killed in a Nov. 18 car bombing, may not have been the hero that the government sought to portray, and that his killers may not have been the politically motivated terrorists that the government blamed.

Anderson, 38, was a long-time Chávez supporter and lead prosecutor on several politically sensitive cases, including many related to the brief coup attempt against Chávez in 2002.

EXTREMISTS BLAMED

Senior government officials immediately blamed his death on opposition extremists linked to anti-Chávez Venezuelan and Cuban exile groups in South Florida. Three days of national mourning were declared for the man Chávez described as, ``a martyr of the people, a brave soldier.''

Now, however, there are indications that Anderson, or at least the lawyers close to him, were paid large bribes in a bid to ensure the acquittal of some civilians linked to the 2002 coup.

Interior Minister Jesse Chacón acknowledged publicly on Jan. 4 that there is evidence of bribery and extortion by two groups of lawyers -- one linked to Anderson and the other to leading bankers suspected in the coup.

One lawyer linked to the prosecutor, Sócrates Tiniacos, told police in a sworn affidavit seen by The Herald that he had helped remove some $60,000 in cash from a safe in Anderson's apartment immediately after the killing -- apparently to keep police from finding the suspicious money. He said he entered the apartment with Anderson's girlfriend, who lived there, and her brother, who knew the combination to the safe.

Tiniacos also swore he had seen two lawyers, who were negotiating a deal to keep a leading banker and coup suspect from going to jail, hand Anderson a bag full of U.S. dollars in a Caracas restaurant.

''Danilo got into his car with the package and left. I don't know what he did with it,'' Tiniaco told police.

Three former policemen have been arrested and charged with the car bombing, but government officials have maintained that they were hired hands and not the so-called ''intellectual authors'' of the assassination. Prosecutors have yet to present evidence as to who paid them to carry out the killing.

Prosecutor-general Isaías Rodríguez said last week that police sympathetic to the alleged bombers had ''shuffled the pieces of the puzzle'' to protect them. The police investigating team in fact has been replaced twice, officially to ensure greater impartiality.

IRREGULARITIES CITED

But critics say the entire investigation has been plagued by irregularities.

Two men identified by police as suspects were killed in what authorities described as shootouts with police but which relatives and lawyers alleged were police executions. And the three men now jailed all claim they were kidnapped, drugged and tortured before they were officially arrested.

As the case has become increasingly bogged down, fingers were even pointed at Vice President José Vicente Rangel.

''Financial interests were putting pressure on Danilo, via José Vicente Rangel,'' to secure the acquittal of prominent bankers, Carlos Herrera, a Caracas municipal council member, one-time Chávez ally and lifelong friend of Anderson, told the Herald.

Rangel described Herrera's allegations, which he also made in the Venezuelan media, as ``garbage.''

What is certain is that Anderson had become suddenly and inexplicably rich.

''The Danilo I first knew was a revolutionary without a cent to his name,'' said Herrera. ``A couple of years ago he didn't even have a car.''

A former student agitator from a Caracas slum, Anderson was among the hooded demonstrators who in the 1990s battled weekly with police in Caracas. But by the time of his death his lifestyle had undergone a radical change.

EXPENSIVE PURCHASES

Herrera said Anderson paid $70,000 for the Toyota SUV in which he was killed, purchased two personal water scooters and several apartments and farms and made little attempt to conceal his free-spending habits.

Prosecutor-General Rodríguez has said the extortion evidence against Anderson is ''contradictory'' and alleged that the case has been politically manipulated.

''If we take away his medal and say Danilo was a crook,'' he told reporters last week, ``we are hurting Hugo Chávez.''