Hogwash about plot to kill hidden in crossword
Source: Agencies |
May 14, 2012, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
GOVERNMENT critics, and even some supporters, are ridiculing a state TV host's allegation that a newspaper crossword puzzle may have had a hidden call for a plot to kill Venezuela President Hugo Chavez's elder brother.
Intelligence agents questioned the author of the puzzle after state TV presenter Miguel Perez Pirela revealed Wednesday's crossword contained the word "ASESINEN," or kill, intersecting with the name of Chavez's brother, "ADAN." He noted they were below the word "RAFAGAS," meaning either gusts of wind or bursts of gunfire.
Neptali Segovia, an English teacher who has prepared crossword puzzles for the newspaper Ultimas Noticias for 17 years, said it was nonsense to think there was a hidden code in the puzzle. He told the newspaper that he went voluntarily to be questioned on Thursday after intelligence agents showed up at the paper asking about him.
"I went because I'm the first one interested in having all this cleared up. I have nothing to hide," Segovia said in an article published last Friday.
Other programs on state television echoed Perez's concerns, but some government supporters questioned the theory in messages on Twitter.
Nestor Francia, a poet and writer who favors Chavez's government, went further, posting a critical article on the pro-Chavez website aporrea.org.
"The complaint of a supposed hidden message in the crossword puzzle of Wednesday's Ultimas Noticias doesn't at all lend weight to our credibility in terms of the right's conspiratorial plans," Francia wrote. "From what cheap spy movie does someone get orders for killings be given through a crossword?"
"We should once again make a call to be serious and responsible with what we say in the public media," he added.
Intelligence agents questioned the author of the puzzle after state TV presenter Miguel Perez Pirela revealed Wednesday's crossword contained the word "ASESINEN," or kill, intersecting with the name of Chavez's brother, "ADAN." He noted they were below the word "RAFAGAS," meaning either gusts of wind or bursts of gunfire.
Neptali Segovia, an English teacher who has prepared crossword puzzles for the newspaper Ultimas Noticias for 17 years, said it was nonsense to think there was a hidden code in the puzzle. He told the newspaper that he went voluntarily to be questioned on Thursday after intelligence agents showed up at the paper asking about him.
"I went because I'm the first one interested in having all this cleared up. I have nothing to hide," Segovia said in an article published last Friday.
Other programs on state television echoed Perez's concerns, but some government supporters questioned the theory in messages on Twitter.
Nestor Francia, a poet and writer who favors Chavez's government, went further, posting a critical article on the pro-Chavez website aporrea.org.
"The complaint of a supposed hidden message in the crossword puzzle of Wednesday's Ultimas Noticias doesn't at all lend weight to our credibility in terms of the right's conspiratorial plans," Francia wrote. "From what cheap spy movie does someone get orders for killings be given through a crossword?"
"We should once again make a call to be serious and responsible with what we say in the public media," he added.
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