Assassination de Danilo Anderson-

Following the assassination, the Venezuelan authorities mounted a high-level investigation which within several days identified ex-police agents Otoniel and Rolando Guevara as involved in the plot. They were arrested on 26 November 2004 and charged with homicide.The same day the Guevara brothers were arrested two other suspects in the case, lawyer Antonio Lopez Castillo and, another former police agent, Juan Carlos Sanchez, were shot dead by investigating officers in separate incidents; both were said to have opened fire on the police. A police search of the home of Lopez Castillo revealed a small arsenal of weapons, ammunition and military equipment.

Subsequently, the investigation widened in search of the organizers and planners of the murder. By August 2005 the Venezuelan authorities had detained Giovani José Vásquez De Armas, a self-confessed former member of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), the Colombian right-wing paramilitary organization. In sworn testimony given on August 29, 2005, Vásquez de Armas declared that he had participated in two meetings to plan attacks against members of the Venezuelan government. He alleged that participants in the second meeting decided to target Danilo Anderson. After that second meeting Vásquez de Armas said he collected 12kg of C4 plastic explosive in Panama and transported it to Venezuela. On the basis of his testimony, warrants were issued for the arrest of leading journalist Patricia Poleo, banker Nelson Mezerhane, retired general Eugenio Áñez Núñez and Salvador Romaní, as the "intellectual authors" of the assassination. Mezzerane, Áñez and Romaní turned themselves in and were granted bail in December 2005. Poleo did not present herself to the authorities; she was interviewed on a TV show in Peru in January 2006.