Vzla: Arson as military discipline

A fire generated in the first military garrison in Zulia State, Fort Mara, resulted in eight Army soldiers badly burnt, two of them with first, second, and third degree burns in over 50% of their bodies. Angel Pedréañez (20), Alcides Martínez (20), Orlando Bustamante (20), César Cábar (23), Abraham Mena (19), Eusebio Reyes (19), Jorge Martí (?) and another unidentified soldier had been sent to a disciplinary cell for participating in El Reafirmazo (the signature collection drive petitioning a presidential recall referendum), and then playing AWOL when pressed by the unit captain when according to Martí, and two of the soldiers’ parents, military officers sprayed gasoline and then ignited the cell. Zulia State commanding officer, General Wilfredo Silva informed the explosion and fire in the cells where the soldiers were was due to an accident originated by a lit cigarette. However, the father of one of the soldiers, Carlos Pedreáñez, fireman for over 37 years in Maracaibo’s Fire Department argued no mattress reaches flames that high because of a lit cigarette. The state governor, Manuel Rosales, has demanded the government and military authorities to investigate the incident.