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Grim tales from the crypt |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Wednesday, 22 February 2006 |
By Jeremy Morgan
Daily Journal Staff
Venezuela-Is nothing sacred? Thieves broke into a cemetery in Caracas last weekend and ransacked a monumental pantheon dedicated to the National Guard (GN). They took away aluminum sheeting and blocks of marble and in the process left 16 skeletons lying around.
The raid on the Cementerio General del Sur was the latest ghoulish incident to take place there, but it's the first known occasion that the grave robbers had the nerve to go up against the guardsmen, albeit indirectly.
Some of the semi-excavated ca-davers had been resting in peace since the mid-1960s. At least this time, the bodies were recovered.
This is by no means the first time that bodies have been disinterred at the cemetery. A bout of grave robbing not so long ago prompted more than one theory as to why people were stealing bodies and skeletons. One idea was that these would be used for medical students to practice upon. Even more macabre, suspicion was the thieves may have been practitioners of the black magic.
Some of the emptied coffins are still lying around.
The general manager of municipal cemeteries, William Contreras, put forward the theory that the thieves who broke into the GN pantheon were after the aluminum or alternatively, that they came from poor areas and took the materials to build houses. Either way, the vandalism has done nothing to enhance the cemetery's reputation for sinister happenings.
The cemetery has come to be known as a hang-out for derelicts and homeless people, and they are not all harmless souls.
They have been known to attack people they see as intruders on their territory, and to quarrel violently among themselves. Last year, the body of a man was found stretched out on the top of a tombstone in broad daylight.
The police never managed to identify him, but they say it was clear he was most likely homeless and he'd been murdered.
Workers at the cemetery warn that it becomes a no-go zone long before the sun goes down.
They get through their work and don't hang about. Some say they've been threatened, insulted and attacked by hobos, drunks and drug addicts.
The epidemic of vandalism and desecration has prompted some relatives of the dead to have their dearly departed ones exhumed and re-interred somewhere else. They no longer feel safe visiting the graves.
Bits and pieces of tombstones including brass nameplates, marble ornaments and even statues of Christ have been regularly disappearing for at least the last two years.
By now, in some parts of the cemetery, there's hardly anything left untouched.
One family put up a plaintive notice. It read: "Here, there's nothing left to steal. Thank you."
Contreras told reporters he was considering imposing time limits on when people can visit the cemetery. Anybody found there outside the permitted hours would be handed over to the police, he added.
But the problem with that, critics claim, is that the police don't so far seem to have been able to do anything to protect the cemetery, even though 20 officers were put on patrol.
Now, there's talk of stepping up the squad to 30 officers, and putting them on watch night and day.
http://www.thedailyjournalonline.com/article.asp?ArticleId=224913&CategoryId=10717 |
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