Security increased at Nunciature and Bishops’ Conference in Venezuela

Caracas, Venezuela, Feb 11, 2009 / 18:53 pm

The newspaper El Diaro Catolico of Venezuela reported this week that in the wake of recent terrorist attacks the Venezuelan government has granted military protection to the Apostolic Nunciature and the offices of the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference in Caracas.

The newspaper reported: “Seven terrorist attacks against the Apostolic Nunciature in Venezuela had to occur and two strong letters of protest had to be sent in order for the government to keep its commitment to the Vienna Convention signed on April 18, 1961, according to which the government is obliged to ‘guarantee the security and wellbeing of the Diplomatic Mission and its personnel’.”

Photos sent to the newspaper by Father Gregorio Salazar, Under Secretary of the Bishops’ Conference of Venezuela, “confirm the presence of military hummers on patrol at both locations: the Apostolic Nunciature, the Holy See’s Embassy to the government of Venezuela, and the headquarters of the Bishops’ Conference of Venezuela, which was surrounded this week by hoards of Chavez supporters.”