Eliécer Otaiza

Eliécer Reinaldo Otaiza Castillo (7 January 1965 – 28 April 2014) was a Venezuelan army officer and politician. A participant in the second 1992 coup attempt against Carlos Andrés Pérez, he later joined the Fifth Republic Movement, sat in the 1999 Constituent Assembly of Venezuela, and held a series of senior posts under Hugo Chávez—among them director of the Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP), president of the Instituto Nacional de Tierras (INTI), and president of the municipal council of Libertador Municipality in Caracas. He was shot dead in 2014 during what authorities described as the robbery of his vehicle.

Early life and education Otaiza studied at the Military Academy of Venezuela and later earned a master's degree in political science at the Simón Bolívar University.

Military and political career 1992 coup attempt Otaiza took part in the coup attempt of 27 November 1992 against Carlos Andrés Pérez, during which he was shot in the abdomen and leg. After treatment at a military hospital he was imprisoned until his release in 1994.

Constituent Assembly He entered politics with the Fifth Republic Movement (MVR), serving as its discipline officer, and in 1999 was elected to the National Constituent Assembly. There he proposed renaming the country from "Republic of Venezuela" to "Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela" and helped draft the assembly's chapter on security and defence. He also sat on the post-assembly National Legislative Commission (the so-called "Congresillo"), where he was one of the main authors of the Intelligence Services Law. El Nuevo Herald characterised him as a radical and aggressive operator who maintained close ties with the colectivos.

Killing

Otaiza was shot four times in Turgua, El Hatillo Municipality, on 28 April 2014, and his pickup truck was taken. The Public Ministry assigned the 19th national-jurisdiction prosecutor to the investigation. The following day, Interior and Justice Minister Miguel Rodríguez Torres said one of the suspects had been arrested. A three-day lying in state was held at the National Assembly, and the mayor of Libertador, Jorge Rodríguez, declared five days of municipal mourning.

According to El Nuevo Herald, the Maduro government attempted to tie the opposition to the killing without producing evidence, while the attack itself was the work of the criminal gang Los Menores.

Personal life Otaiza was a friend of the philosopher Luis Castro Leiva, whose research seminars he attended,

On 23 June 2005 he was involved in a motorcycle crash on Avenida Principal de Las Mercedes, in Caracas, in which his pillion passenger, María Gabriela Tablante, died. Otaiza sustained a closed traumatic brain injury and was admitted to intensive care; prosecutors sought to charge him with culpable homicide, but the case was eventually dismissed for lack of evidence.