Rogue helicopter attacks stir backlash

NEW YORK • On his Instagram account Oscar Perez is photographed in several James-Bond-esque poses, accompanied by big guns, dogs and a police helicopter.

But now the alleged police pilot is at the centre of a story drawn firmly from the pages of any thriller and with the capacity to plunge Venezuela into civil war.

Is Perez a CIA spy charged with ousting President Nicolas Maduro, or a stooge of the Venezuelan government whose antics will be used as a pretext to crackdown on dissent in the country?

In extraordinary scenes in Caracas on Tuesday, a stolen police helicopter fired shots at the president’s interior ministry and dropped grenades on the Supreme Court, both viewed by Venezuela’s opposition as bastions of support for its dictator.

Maduro on Wednesday denounced it as a “terrorist attack” on the conflictwracked country.

No one was injured in the incident, which came amid yet more turmoil as Luisa Ortega Diaz, the chief prosecutor, was stripped of some of her powers and opposition politicians were shoved and harangued by pro-government colleagues inside the National Assembly.

Perez is believed to be an investigator with Venezuela’s largest police division, the CICPC. He draped a banner from the helicopter involved in the attack reading “350 Libertad” — 350 Freedom — an apparent reference to the 350th article of the Venezuelan constitution, which allows for disobedience to any regime or authority that violates democratic values or human rights.

He posted a series of Instagram messages justifying the attack, saying he launched the assault “against tyranny.”

“We have two choices: be judged tomorrow by our conscience and the people or begin today to free ourselves from this corrupt government,” he said while reading from a statement with four people dressed in military fatigues, ski masks and carrying what looked like assault rifles standing behind him.

Perez, who starred in a film called Suspended Death, said that his helicopter stunt was intended “to give the power back to the people,” and demanded that Maduro and his ministers resign and hold general elections. The helicopter was later found abandoned on the Caribbean coast. Perez has disappeared.

Some of Maduro’s opponents said they believed Perez’s assault was engineered by the president, to provide him with an excuse to crack down on three months of protests, which have left 75 dead.

But the government said Perez was taking instructions from the CIA and U.S. Embassy, displaying photos of him in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington and a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter.

THE HELICOPTER WAS LATER FOUND ABANDONED ON THE CARIBBEAN COAST. PEREZ HAS DISAPPEARED.