Posted on 09/28/2001 6:38:16 PM PDT by Jhoffa_
CARACAS, Venezuela Police in a western Venezuelan state who are accused of dozens of unlawful killings used witchcraft to try to ward off an investigation by state prosecutors, authorities said on Thursday.
Venezuela's National Guard units that took over police stations in Portuguesa state this week discovered crude witchcraft altars carrying photographs of the investigating prosecutors placed head down amid lit candles and effigies of saints.
``They were using black magic...trying to cause the death (of the prosecutors) through supernatural methods,'' Venezuela's public prosecutor, Isaias Rodriguez said, adding the investigators also received more conventional death threats.
The National Guard was called in to disarm and take control of the police in Portuguesa, a small rural state in the largely Roman Catholic country, after the state governor said she could no longer guarantee control of the force.
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