Office: | Sucre Municipality Councilman |
Death Date: | 17 October 2019 |
Party: | Popular Will |
Death Place: | Caracas |
Edmundo Rada Angulo, also known as Pipo,[1] [2] (died 16 October 2019) was a Venezuelan politician who served as councilman for the Popular Will party for Petare, in the Sucre Municipality of Caracas. Rada went missing on 16 October 2019 and was found dead the following day on the side of the road out of Petare, Caracas, burned and with two coup de grâce shots in the back of his neck.
Rada was known as a social leader who spearheaded the organization of community kitchens. He had been a member of Popular Will since the party was founded, according to Leopoldo López.[3]
His body was found on 17 October 2019 on the side of the road out of Petare, burned and with two coup de grâce shots in the back of his neck, after he was reported missing the day before. Disputed interim president and leader of the Popular Will party Juan Guaidó declared that Rada's death was "a murder [committed by] the dictatorship" (i.e. forces loyal to Maduro) and that "there are clear indications that the cause [was] political", suspecting that the crime was committed by the Special Action Forces (FAES). Guaidó noted that Rada was murdered on the same day that Venezuela was elected as member of the United Nations Human Rights Council.[4] [5] Rada's family gave public statements only to Colombian networks, reporting that Rada had fears of the FAES coming after him after they took photographs of him at a protest in late September.
His funeral was held in Unión de Petare, and he is interred at the Caracas East Cemetery. His body was identified and recovered from the Bello Monte morgue by his family and fellow politicians Gilber Caro and Ismael León. On Friday 18 October, the Spanish government condemned the "cruel murder" of a politician.[6]