Caracas Chronicles

Last February 27th, local Chavista activist Alcedo Mora allegedly left his home in the city of Mérida.

He went to his workplace at the Merida State Government and met with his boss, Luis Martínez Rico, who’s the state’s Lieutenant-Governor.

Later that day, he texted a few friends, telling them that SEBIN intelligence agents were looking for him, and that he was going to a meeting in the nearby town of Jaji.

That was the last anyone heard of him.

Days after his disappearance, family and friends of Mr. Mora, along with human rights NGOs like PROVEA, have called the authorities to find him. Time has passed and protests have been held both in Merida and Caracas, without getting any kind of response. Multiple articles in Aporrea and other related websites continue to keep the case in the public view while at the same time lamenting the official silence, particularly from the same Merida State Government that employed Mora.

More than three months on, the mystery of what happened to Alcedo Mora, and the possible reasons behind his disappearance, remain open to question.

His son, Alcedo Mora, Jr. recently left a video message where he said that the investigation is in the same spot that two months ago and called on national authorities to break their silence. He even dared mention the possibility that his father was the victim of a forced disappearance.

According to his son, Mr Mora had evidence of possible corruption by local PDVSA employees involving gas smuggling from El Vigia’s distribution terminal. He shared his evidence with both Martinez and the Merida State Governor, Alexis Ramirez on February 24th. He had been on the case (along with others) for six months.

Many in Chavista circles have complained that the Merida State government has shown no active interest in helping locate Mr. Mora, even if he was one of their employees. However, Alcedo Mora Jr.’s brother was allegedly told by Martinez that “… (his disappearance) happened to him because he was talking too many pistoladas (nonsense)”.

(For the record, Mr. Mora started working for the previous Governor of Merida, Marcos Diaz Orellana, back in 2008, but kept his job when Ramirez replaced him four years later).

To try understand this case, there’s this special report from news site Armando.Info that came out a month ago. Titled “Las pistoladas de Alcedo Mora”, journalist Juan Jose Faria present both a portrait of the man, and the motives that led to him going missing, including the revelation that he received death threats by armed men a week before his disappearance.