Latinnews Archive
Andean Group - 19 June 1981
VENEZUELA: Whatever happened to Niehous?
William Frank Niehous vice-president of Owens Illinois Glass Compaany in Venezuela, was kidnapped on 27 February 1976. Two policemen investigating a case of cattle rustling in a remote part of Bolivar state in south-eastern Venezuela, stumbled across him on on 29 June 1979. By the evening of the following day he was on his way home to Toledo, Ohio. The circumstances of his captivity and release remain shrouded in mystery. After two years of silence the Niehous case may soon posing to stand in the 1983 presidential elections; several other interested parties will also be actively involved in the campaign. Some of the unanswered questions are almost certain to be asked again.
Responsibility for the kidnapping was claimed by a group calling itself Grupo de Comando Revolucionario, Organizacion Argimiro Gabaldon. They made it known that they intended to put Niehous on trial; rumours soon began to circulate that they had found confidential documents in his briefcase, compromising senior government minister David Morales Bello. In a document dated April 1976, but only published after Niehous's release, the kidnappers claimed to have evidence that Morales Bello had been paid a large sum of money by Owens Illinois to use his influence in the company's favour. From the beginning, Niehous's captors maintained that he was a CIA agent.
The Perez government ordered Owens not to negotiate with the kidnappers, and launched a largescale operation to track them down. In July 1976, two militants of the left-wing Liga Socialista were arrested; according to the police, they were on their way to pick up the first ransom instalment. Information they gave under torture led to the arrest and almost immediate death of the party's general secretary, Jorge Rodriguez. The police claimed he had a heart attack, but the autopsy showed that he had died of internal haemorrhages, apparently caused by severe beatings.
The government then tried to implicate two opposition congressmen in the case; Salom Meza and Fortunato Herrera of MEP were stripped of their parliamentary immunity and arrested, in August 1976. As far as the government was concerned, the case was now solved; the kidnapping had been a plot by the left-wing opposition to discredit the regime. To confirm this theory, two guerrillas, Carlos Lanz and Luis Solorzano, confessed in February 1977 that they had taken part in the kidnapping. They added that Niehous was in the hands of Organizacion Revolucionaria (OR), the armed wing of Liga Socialista.
When President Luis Herrera Campins took office in March 1979, he announced that Niehous's whereabouts were known, and that everything was being done to secure his release. US columnist Jack Anderson has since confirmed (Parade, 13 April 1980) that he was involved in the negotiations, and that a US$ 7m ransom was about to be paid when the two policemen stumbled upon Niehous.
By this time, both Meza and Herrera were at liberty again; Meza had been released when he was elected to congress in the 1978 elections, along with David Nieves of Liga Socialista. Both claimed that the Perez government had ordered Jorge Rodriguez to be killed, in the hope of provoking the kidnappers into murdering Niehous, and thereby preventing any tales of corruption from coming out into the open.
Although it would have suited President Herrera's book to have more mud slung at his predecessor's regime, it soon began to look as though he did not want the truth to come out either. He was engaged in a 'pacification' campaign with the remaining guerrilla organisations, and had a good deal of political prestige riding on its success.
However, it turned out that two alleged guerrillas had been killed when the two policemen freed Niehous. After various conflicting versions of what happened had appeared in the press, the police managed to agree that the guerrillas had not resisted arrest, and had allowed themselves to be handcuffed. Apparently at this point they decided to make a run for it, forcing the policemen to open fire. Niehous agreed that he had heard several shots, but the autopsy showed that both men had died of a single bullet in the back of the neck. Niehous has never been back to Venezuela to clear up this or any other matter.
At this point the army made its presence felt. Encouraged by ex-President Perez, the adeco former commander of the armed forces, General Arnaldo Castro Hurtado, came out publicly against the Herrera government's pacification programme. In a TV interview, General Castro insisted that only those guerrilla groups that had not participated in the Niehous kidnapping could be pardoned. He had been head of military intelligence at the time of the affair, and his version of events, adopted by the Perez government at the time, had implicated virtually all the country's armed groups. The only exception was Douglas Bravo's PRV, the only group which had still not accepted pacification. Castro Hurtado's version also confirmed that Meza, Herrera and the Liga Socialista had been involved in the kidnapping.
The general went on to charge that 'the two guerrillas who were killed were waiting for the person or persons sent by the government to collect Niehous. Niehous was not stumbled on accidentally as the government claimed.'
After the rescue, Remberto Uzcategui, the head of the political police, Disip, had stated that he had known for some time where Niehous was, as his agents had penetrated the organisation mediating between the guerrillas and the authorities. This, according to the general, was OR, which was one of the first groups to be 'pacified'. If the guerrillas had been taken alive, they would have had to be put on trial. Instead, the government made a deal with the guerrillas: Niehous in return for a free pardon and subsequent cover-up. The general implied that the previous government's policy of no concessions would have forced them to hand Niehous over eventually, without any need for 'pacification'. Indignation in the barracks even led to short-lived rumours of a military coup.
Nothing more has been heard of the case since then. Niehous has not only not testified, but his diary kept in captivity has not been published in full. Meza threatened to sue ex-President Perez for abuse of power, but never did. Herrera disappeared completely from public life after his release.
David Nieves is still in congress and, with other 'pacified' guerrillas, is involved in the search for a left-wing presidential candidate. Meza will probably stand for MEP, and General Castro Hurtado is also thinking of running in 1983. Lanz and Solorzano are still in prison, and have not yet been brought to trial.
Return to top