EL PAIS
The Robbers Were After Pouch With $300,000 That An Official Withdrew In Fuerte Tiuna
By El País
Final Edition | Sunday, March 8, 2009
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Attack on Cuban mission in Anauco
They took the sum of 26,000 Strong Bolivars that was going to pay the Cultural Mission
Caracas. A group of Cuban officials who were working for the government of Venezuela were assaulted on Friday morning in the Anauco Hilton Hotel in Central Park by a gang seeking a sum of 300,000 dollars, which had been withdrawn hours earlier to pay the wages of the employees of the Cultural Mission.
The attack took place at 11 am, when the Cuban officials arrived from the Banco Industrial de Venezuela, located in Fuerte Tiuna. The members of the mission withdrew $300,000 in cash and went to the third floor of the Anauco Hilton, where their operational center is located, but, according to the police report, several armed men were waiting for them there.
The officials offered no resistance, but the robbers had no way of dealing with the pouch containing the dollars and therefore they took 26,000 Strong Bolivars in cash, which was in the offices [in 2008 a new Bolivar Fuerte, with three zeros removed, was introduced to take the place of the old Bolivar].
According to off-the-record comments by a source in the CICPC (Scientific, Penal, and Criminal Investigations Corps), the dollars and bolivars are part of the funds used to pay those working at the Cultural Mission and to cover operational expenses.
Officials from the CICPC were notified and arrived at the hotel to carry out the required investigation. The Cubans were questioned and a forensic examination of the site was carried out.
According to the unofficial version, the police do not rule out the collaboration of some employee of the mission or the bank who could have supplied details about the withdrawal of the money.