CARACAS, Venezuela, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Venezuela asked Interpol to arrest former President Carlos Andres Perez, who presided over the country's oil boom in the 1970s during his second term.
EFE news agency reported Wednesday that Venezuelan Attorney General Luisa Ortega said that the 87-year-old former president is being sought in connection with deaths caused by the security forces during a 1989 uprising in the capital Caracas. According to Ortega, the arrest warrant "is included in Interpol's code red, but that is not a guarantee that he is going to be captured. That depends on the government of the country where he is at this time."
The uprising, known as the "Caracazo," occurred in late February 1989, a few days after Perez took office for the second time and promptly imposed a harsh austerity program advocated by the International Monetary Fund. The exact death toll was never determined; at the time the government listed 300 killed, while human-rights groups put the figure at more than 1,000.
Perez, who currently lives in exile in Miami, served as Venezuela's president from 1974-1979 and 1989-1993.
