Scanadal: Venezuelan Legislator Attacked a Journalist - Video

Filed in archive Latin News on November 21, 2007

A Venezuelan "chavista" legislator, iris Varela, violently attacked a journalist - Gustavo Azócar - after a TV show, in Táchira. Varela didn't leave after the show (La Esquina Caliente) was over, and accused Azócar of "talking about her dead son" and of slandering her in several opportunities.

"I stayed, because he has constantly used the show to say I'm corrupt, I own houses, I own properties, I own taxis, and even to mess up with the memory of my dead son" said Varela, who slapped the journalist several times and broke his glasses.

"He messed with my dead son, I am the only one who suffer because of my dead son, I can accept any calumny except that one", said Varela. I don't know exactly what Azócar said, but you can see in the video Varela is wildly mad. She thinks it was correct to act like that, because she "knows how to defend her honor".

Watch the video:

Link to the video - Iris Varela entra a golpes a Gustavo Azocar

On the other hand, Gustavo Azócar complained about how the deputy "deals with conflicts" (which is obviously stupid and childish) and revealed that Varela entered the network's building (using force and four bodyguards) and "almost attacked the security personnel".

"The only way to take me away from the show is to shoot me, and whoever is going to shoot me will have to aim very well (...) This doesn't scare us", said Azócar.

According to USA Today, "Azocar recently wrote a book in which he recounted the death of Varela's infant son in a hospital in the early 1990s and called it a determining event in her life." It's understandable she dislike it, but to physically attack a journalist definitively isn't an acceptable way to resolve problems.

Apparently Iris Varela thinks otherwise.

More info: Venezuelan lawmaker slaps journalist on TV