Carlos Ortega on the run

The stunning news of the day is Carlos Ortega, ex trade union boss, ex leader of the 2002-2003 general strike, has escaped the military high security jail where he was held. Though his lawyer hope that it is a real escape and not a way to "disappear" Ortega body. The lawyer also says that for a political prisoner, escape is a natural thing. Indeed, Ortega is a political prisoner, sent to jail on a trumped trial.

Escaped? Or let loose? I mean, several other prisoners escaped. Mass escape in an army jail of Ortega and other jailed military?

And what about Isaias Rodriguez offering personal safety to Ortega and Co. if they surrender and go back to jail?

There is enough in that story to allow this blogger to wonder if it is a genuine escape or an internal plot to embarass Chavez just as he launches his reelection bid. All is possible in this "tierra de gracia", including things that this blogger vivid imagination cannot yet conceive...

PS: As informations keep coming. The escape was amazing and required internal complicity. Or? Maybe it was not an escape? the other thing is that another notorious prisoner, General Uson one of the most unjustly held poltical prisoner was not in the escapee lot. All were more suspicious characters (the Farias were involved, supposedly, in the para affair of the Daktar ranch) while the straight arrow of Uson keeps languishing in jail. I smell a rat.

PS2: The BBC reports on it. It also echoes doubts about the whole business.

PS3: There is even a tape of one of the escaped military with the usual appeal expected in such cases. Will the dead bodies appear tomorrow? Will they show up alive at some embassy seeking asylum? Never a dull moment in the bolibanana revolution. John LeCarré would have it that easy....