Danilo Baltasar Anderson (born 29 October 1966) was a Venezuelan environmental state prosecutor investigating more than 400 people accused of crimes during the Llaguno Overpass events and the failed 2002 coup d'état attempt.
The strike ultimately failed in its attempt to make President Chávez resign, but caused acute economic problems, with GDP falling by a quarter in early 2003, and deepened the conflictive political situation and polarization resulting from the Llaguno Overpass shootout and the April coup.
[citation needed] On 18 November 2004 at about 9:45 pm, Anderson was in Urbanización Los Chaguaramos in Caracas, driving home in his yellow Toyota Autana from the University Institute of Forensic Science where he was taking postgraduate classes.
[1][4][5] Within a few hours, many government officials had gathered at the scene and Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez began to mention Anderson's involvement in the investigation of those who signed the Carmona Decree.
[2] Herrera explained that the Toyota Autana that Anderson was killed in was $70,000 and that he had recently purchased two personal water craft along with multiple apartments and farms.
[8] Some reported that DISIP officers were the ones who had the Guevara brothers bound earlier and let them go so that they would be found and arrested legally, though the Venezuelan government denied such allegations.
[2][10] On 4 January 2005, Interior Minister Jesse Chacón stated that there was evidence of bribery and extortion linked to both Anderson and bankers that allegedly participated in the 2002 coup.
Tiniacos also explained in his sworn statement that he saw two attorneys negotiating to keep a banker and coup suspect from being arrested and saw them give Anderson a bag full of U.S. dollars in a Caracas restaurant.
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.
[11] On the basis of Vásquez De Armas' 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.
[14] In 2006 the credibility of the key prosecution witness Vásquez De Armas came into question after it was shown he had a criminal record for identity fraud in his native Colombia and he was not a psychiatrist as he had pledged to be.
[15] Venezuela's Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez moved to control press reporting on Vasquez de Armas while the case was sub-judice.
[3] Isaías Rodríguez was accused by the opposition to turn Anderson's murder into a political witch hunt, using the case to harass government opponents.