Venezuelan ex-spy chief shot and killed outside Caracas

CARACAS, Venezuela, April 29 (UPI) -- Venezuelan police are investigating the shooting death of former intelligence chief Eliecer Otaiza.

Otaiza's body was discovered on Saturday outside the capital. He had been shot four times.

Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres noted that lack of identification slowed the identification process. Police confirmed Monday that the body, which had been taken to a local morgue, was that of the former intelligence chief.

Police did not disclose a possible motive for his killing. An investigation is on-going.

Otaiza was named direction of national intelligence early in Hugo Chavez's presidency. Chavez, in one of his autobiographical books, recalled Otaiza's attempt to free Chavez from prison following a failed coup attempt in the 1990s. "He came into the prison masquerading as a woman, and he looked really ugly by the way." Chavez turned Otaiza away with instructions "to work on the outside for the revolution."

In December 2013, Otaiza was elected as a local counselor for the PSUV party in the Libertadores area.