Gunmen arrested after crisis in Venezuela
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - January 29, 2008 The gunmen first let three hostages go and then negotiated with
police while holding on to the last two, Guarico state Gov. Eduardo
Manuitt said.
"This nightmare is over," Manuitt told state television.
They eventually turned over their guns and a grenade, and then
were ordered to the ground as police arrested them, Manuitt said.
The pursuit ended less than two hours after the gunmen fled the
bank under a deal negotiated with police.
The arrests ended an ordeal that began Monday morning with a
botched bank robbery in this town southeast of Caracas. The hostage
standoff at the Banco Provincial branch was the longest in at least
a decade in Venezuela.
In the final hours, some hostages inside the bank held up signs
in the windows with desperate pleas for help and used cell phones
to call their relatives.
Under the deal with police, the gunmen were permitted to leave
with five hostages who agreed to accompany them, freeing the rest
of the captives at the bank. Police allowed the gunmen to flee
because "they threatened to start killing the hostages in 20
minutes," Manuitt said.
One of the hostages who later left with the gunmen, Vanessa
Saavedra, spoke quietly and haltingly to Colombia's Caracol Radio
by cell phone from inside the bank, saying: "We don't want them to
shoot ... We don't want them to open fire. Please."
Saavedra's mother, Jasmin Gonzalez, said her daughter - a
25-year-old teller - volunteered to leave with the gunmen. "She's
very brave. I know she's going to come out of this fine," Gonzalez
said through tears outside the bank.
It was not immediately known how many hostages were freed as
relatives and onlookers massed at the front door of the bank and
some were led to waiting ambulances. Bank executive Leon Enrique
Cottin said earlier Tuesday that 33 hostages were held captive, but
Manuitt said after the siege that nearly 40 hostages were freed at
the bank.
Those freed were believed to include a 2-week-old infant, at
least three other children under the age of 10, and a woman who is
eight months pregnant. She was wheeled out reclining on a
stretcher.
One man emerged with a bandaged hand, carrying a girl in his
arms, and got into an ambulance.
"After five or six hours, they began to let down their guard
saying, 'You aren't going to die,"' freed hostage Juan Carlos Gil
told The Associated Press of his captors. "They were nervous, but
it was all an atmosphere as if they were everyone's friends."
His account differed from that of Justice Minister Ramon
Rodriguez Chacin, who said during the standoff that the gunmen had
been taking drugs, making the situation volatile.
Gil said he never saw any of the gunmen use drugs and they
appeared sober.
The four gunmen entered the bank Monday morning when a uniformed
police officer pulled up to use the cash machine and surprised the
would-be robbers, said Amanda Saldivia, a reporter for the local
Guarana Radio FM.
Seven captives made it out of the bank during the standoff,
including several who were released and two who fled.
Saavedra said she was terrified when the men pointed a gun at a
security guard and threatened him. "He went out running and they
shot at him" but missed, Saavedra told Caracol. "It was truly
horrific."
A man identified as one of the gunmen who gave his name as Jorge
spoke to Caracol during the standoff, saying "people have the
sense that we're going to leave."
Shortly before the deal was reached, one of the hostages broke a
window in desperation, and one of the gunmen fired a shot in
response, Manuitt said.
Officials did not immediately say if the gunmen left with any
money.
Police officers with assault rifles took up positions at windows
directly above the bank during the standoff, and then stood down at
the urging of a hostage as the ambulance pulled up to ferry the
group away.
Security cameras captured images of the gunmen until the cameras
went dead - apparently cut off by the men - and the footage was
turned over to authorities, said Cottin, the Venezuela president of
Spain's Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, or BBVA, which owns Banco
Provincial.
As for the gunmen, Manuitt told state television, "We think
they don't have much experience because of the sort of weapons they
carry and by their behavior." He said they carried handguns and
"a type of grenade."
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Associated Press writers Vivian Sequera, in Bogota, Colombia,
and Daniel Woolls in Madrid, Spain, contributed to this report.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)