Berbice hotel attack… ‘Venezuelan’ accused claims he’s from Dominican Republic

Aug 13, 2008 News

-autopsy on dead associate delayed

The ‘Venezuelan’ who was charged with attempted murder following an attack at the Malinmar Hotel in Berbice is now claiming that he is a native of the Dominican Republic.

When he was arrested two Fridays ago, police confiscated documents which identified the suspect as Severino Lopez, a resident of Venezuela. He was charged for attempted murder under that name and remanded to prison.

But a Venezuelan Embassy official told Kaieteur News yesterday that when he visited ‘Lopez’ in prison on Monday, the prisoner gave him and the police another name and nationality.

According to the official, ‘Lopez’ said he was really Obispo Pen De La Cruz from Santo Domingo of the Dominican Republic.

Kaieteur News was told that the accused claimed that he had entered Guyana with false Venezuelan documents after travelling to Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil. A senior police official confirmed that investigators are still trying to ascertain the man’s identity.

But the Embassy official said that ‘De La Cruz’ refused to divulge any information about the other man who was arrested with him after the hotel attack.

The other man, who had documents identifying him as Robielkis Robigcel Monte Deoca Arias, of Venezuela, died at the Skeldon Hospital shortly after he was arrested.

Police said that the suspect had a cut over the left eye when he was detained and had complained of feeling unwell.

The autopsy on his remains has been delayed until his identity can be ascertained. It is alleged that the two ‘Venezuelans’ had rented a room at the Malinmar Hotel at Springlands, Corentyne.

They had later complained that their shower was not working. When hotel owner Rahat Ally went to investigate their complaint, they allegedly held him at gunpoint and struck him with a handgun.

The suspects then fled in the direction of the river, where they stabbed a speedboat owner and took his boat.

Police said the men were intercepted during a brief shootout with ranks from the Berbice Anti-Smuggling Squad (BASS).