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Venezuelan Interior Minister Gustavo Gonzalez Lopez said Sunday that the two apprehended suspects in the killing of a retired Venezuelan Army Major General Felix Velasquez were policemen from the opposition-held Caracas borough of Chacao.
According to witnesses, two gunman approached the vehicle aboard a motorcycle and killed the senior military officer who was with his five-year-old granddaughter.
Gonzalez said a preliminary investigation indicated the homicide of Velasquez was a contract killing disguised as an attempted robbery. He later said on national television on Sunday that the suspects are Chacao police officers and that the motorcycle and arms they used were property of the police department.
In a series of tweets from his official account, Gonzalez said the one suspect was caught around noon Sunday, with a second apprehended around 2:00 p.m. local time.
Gonzalez stated on Saturday that the government suspected that far-right political groups may have been behind the targeted assassination of Velasquez. After further investigation, he said Sunday that they coordinated with criminal gangs.
The minister said the assassination may have been part of an effort to “interrupt the dialogue process which has just begun” between the government of President Nicolas Maduro and the political opposition.
The Chacao police department is notoriously corrupt, but the opposition insisted on refraining from centralization efforts initiated by the government.
Representatives from both sides held preliminary talks in the Dominican Republic at the behest of the Union of South American Nations, UNASUR, and were facilitated by the three former presidents of Panama, Martin Torrijos; of the hosting country, Leonel Fernandez, and of Spain, Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
The Venezuelan opposition, despite being united under the banner of the Democratic Unity Roundtable, or MUD, is fiercely divided over the means to oust Maduro from office.
There are elements within the opposition that are dead set against any efforts at dialogue with the Maduro government.
A targeted assassination, like the one allegedly carried out against Velazquez, could derail the modest progress made.
National Assembly leader Henry Ramos Allup was recently implicated in recent protest violence, where a group of youth assaulted a policewoman.
Gonzalez also said that his “best men” had been assigned to investigate the case.
Velasquez served as the first commander of the Bolivarian National Militia during the administration of the late President Hugo Chavez and was acting as spokesperson for reservists at the time of his killing.
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