Eliécer Otaiza

Eliécer Reinaldo Otaiza Castillo (7 January 1965 – 28 April 2014) was a Venezuelan army officer and politician. A participant in the second 1992 coup attempt against Carlos Andrés Pérez, he later joined the Fifth Republic Movement, sat in the 1999 Constituent Assembly of Venezuela, and held a series of senior posts under Hugo Chávez—among them director of the Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP), president of the Instituto Nacional de Tierras (INTI), and president of the municipal council of Libertador Municipality in Caracas. He was shot dead in 2014 during what authorities described as the robbery of his vehicle.

Early life and education

Otaiza studied at the Military Academy of Venezuela and later earned a master's degree in political science at the Simón Bolívar University.

Military and political career

1992 coup attempt

Otaiza took part in the coup attempt of 27 November 1992 against Carlos Andrés Pérez, during which he was shot in the abdomen and leg. After treatment at a military hospital he was imprisoned until his release in 1994.

Constituent Assembly

He entered politics with the Fifth Republic Movement (MVR), serving as its discipline officer, and in 1999 was elected to the National Constituent Assembly. There he proposed renaming the country from "Republic of Venezuela" to "Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela" and helped draft the assembly's chapter on security and defence. He also sat on the post-assembly National Legislative Commission (the so-called "Congresillo"), where he was one of the main authors of the Intelligence Services Law.

DISIP and the 2002 coup attempt

Otaiza was appointed director of DISIP in January 2000. During the 2001 Vladimiro Montesinos affair, he was accused of having concealed the whereabouts in Caracas of Montesinos, the former political adviser to Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori; Otaiza repeatedly denied the allegation. He was near the Miraflores Presidential Palace alongside Juan Barreto on 13 April 2002, when Chávez was returned to power during the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt.

Later government posts

He subsequently directed the Instituto Nacional de Capacitación y Educación Socialista (INCES) and the Instituto Nacional de Tierras (INTI), and in 2004 stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for the governorship of Carabobo state. From 2006 to 2008 he served as director general of the National Public Procurement System; in 2011 he ran the La Bandera passenger terminal in Caracas, and in 2012 he headed the Libertador Municipality Institute of Sport and Recreation (Imdere).

Libertador Municipality council

In the 2013 Venezuelan municipal elections, Otaiza was elected councillor of Libertador Municipality for the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and became president of the municipal chamber. In December that year, President Nicolás Maduro promoted him from captain to major. El Nuevo Herald characterised him as a radical and aggressive operator who maintained close ties with the colectivos.

Killing

Otaiza was shot four times in Turgua, El Hatillo Municipality, on 28 April 2014, and his pickup truck was taken. The Public Ministry assigned the 19th national-jurisdiction prosecutor to the investigation. The following day, Interior and Justice Minister Miguel Rodríguez Torres said one of the suspects had been arrested. A three-day lying in state was held at the National Assembly, and the mayor of Libertador, Jorge Rodríguez, declared five days of municipal mourning. Councillors of the opposition coalition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) also condemned the killing.

According to El Nuevo Herald, the Maduro government attempted to tie the opposition to the killing without producing evidence, while the attack itself was the work of the criminal gang Los Menores. In August 2021 five members of the gang were convicted of the murder and sentenced to 20 years and 2 months in prison each.

Personal life

Otaiza was a friend of the philosopher Luis Castro Leiva, whose research seminars he attended, and was married to Gabriela González.

On 23 June 2005 he was involved in a motorcycle crash on Avenida Principal de Las Mercedes, in Caracas, in which his pillion passenger, María Gabriela Tablante, died. Otaiza sustained a closed traumatic brain injury and was admitted to intensive care; prosecutors sought to charge him with culpable homicide, but the case was eventually dismissed for lack of evidence.

See also

• Robert Serra
• 1999 Constituent Assembly of Venezuela
• 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt