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 12 kg of C4 plastic explosive in Panama and transported it to Venezuela. 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. 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. Human rights groups, media advocates and members of the opposition accused the Venezuelan government of turning the investigation of Anderson's murder into a political issue, using the case to harass government opponents. They stated that the accusations were an attempt to take away the freedom of the press. On 20 December 2005, Otoniel and Rolando Guevara were sentenced to 27 years and 9 months imprisonment each, while their brother Juan Bautista was sentenced to the maximum 30 years. Flaws 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. Documentation of uncertain provenance was produced apparently showing that Vasquez de Armas was serving jail time in Santa Marta, Colombia, at the time he claims to have witnessed the planning of Anderson's murder by leading opposition figures. Venezuela's Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez moved to control press reporting on Vasquez de Armas while the case was sub-judice. The ban on discussing the personal life and alleged unreliability of Vásquez was lifted in August 2006. In August 2006, Isaias Rodríguez had to admit that Vasquez de Armes had actually lied. Armas also admitted to one journalist that the Venezuelan government "paid him to fabricate his testimony".