John McDonnell

The left wing Labour Member of Parliament John McDonnell has tabled an Early Day Motion condemning the murder of Danilo Anderson, the Venezuelan prosecutor investigating the April 2002 military coup against president Chavez (see Prosecutor investigating anti-Chavez coup killed in terrorist attack). John McDonnell has been a vocal supporter and collaborator of the Hands Off Venezuela campaign from the very beginning (see Successful Hands Off Venezuela meeting at Portcullis House (London, UK)). The motion comes after another motion also moved by John McDonnell on November 17th (EDM 854), which also condemned US interference in Venezuela and its efforts to remove the democratically elected president Hugo Chavez. On the House of Commons web site you can see the full text of the November 17 th motion and the list of thirty-two MPs who signed: http://edm.ais.co.uk/weblink/html/motion.html/EDMI_SES=03/ref=854

The current EDM condemning the murder of Danilo Anderson is still open. This means that MPs can still add their name to it (at the moment of writing, 7 have done so). The motion (EDM 127) reads:

HANDS OFF VENEZUELA CAMPAIGN

That this House condemns the murder by a car bomb of Danilo Anderson, the leading prosecutor investigating the coup attempt in 2002 against President Chavez of Venezuela; expresses its concern that this crime is a further attempt to destabilise the country by those elements in Venezuela and elsewhere who refuse to respect the will of the Venezuelan people expressed in the referendum in August which gave overwhelming support to President Chavez; and congratulates the Hands Off Venezuela campaign for the work it is undertaking to support the people of Venezuela.

You can check whether your MP has signed or not (http://edm.ais.co.uk/weblink/html/motion.html/ref=127), and then ask them to do so if they have not already.

The motion correctly points to elements within the country and also elsewhere as responsible for the murder of Danilo Anderson. This is quite correct. In fact over the last few months there has been a consistent campaign in Miami , by opposition elements, openly calling for Chavez and other prominent figures of the revolutionary movement to be killed. The latest, but not the only, example of this was that of known TV presenter and prominent oppositionist Orlando Urdaneta. In an interview on Miami ’s Channel 22 TV station on October 25th, he said that “the way out of all of this is for this character [Chavez] to be eliminated”. The interviewer asked how Chavez could be “eliminated” and Urdaneta specified: “easy, just one person with a rifle with a scope”. In order not to leave any room for doubt he added: “if people are waiting for someone to give the order, I am giving it right now”. These people, Venezuelan and Cuban reactionary oppositionists, are free to openly call for terrorist activities while in Miami protected by US visas. This, like the case of the Miami Five (see The Cuban “Miami Five”: Jailed in the US for fighting terrorism) shows the hypocrisy of the US administration and their so-called “war on terror”.