VENEZUELA President Nicolas Maduro announced plans yesterday to purge the police force following his accusations that some officers were involved in the murder of Robert Serra earlier this month.

Mr Maduro (pictured) said that he would name a presidential commission to “revolutionise the police” and “fix everything that’s wrong” with it.

Mr Serra, who was just 27 and a parliamentary deputy for the United Socialist Party (PSUV), was found stabbed to death, as was his partner Maria Herrera, at their Caracas home on October 1.

“Let’s dig deep to build the kind of police force that our fatherland really deserves. We need a revolution of the police force here in Venezuela and I will carry it out without delay, without excuses,” he declared.

The president said that as part of the investigation into the murders it had come to light “small groups of officers” were being paid by criminals.

One group from the Caracas force “had put itself at the service of Colombian paramilitary mafias to kill this leader of the Venezuelan youth,” he added, accusing the officers of “betraying their oath.”

Mr Serra, a lawyer, was elected to the National assembly in 2010.

He had distinguishing himself for his firebrand speaking style, his courageous denunciation of organised mafias and for his standing in the streets of the poorest sectors of the capital.

He was more comfortable among the struggling people in the barrios than anywhere else and led the PSUV youth wing of in the capital.

Political parties, social movements, trade unions, women’s groups and other popular forces sent condolences and organised commemorations in Mr Serra’s honour.

An open casket vigil was held in the National Assembly and three days of mourning declared.

The Venezuelan Communist Party (PCV) issued an immediate alert to revolutionary forces, condemning “this abominable deed that has denied the Venezuelan youth and the conscientious, democratic, patriotic and revolutionary people of one of its most important activist cadres.”

The PCV urged all popular revolutionary forces to remain alert and to “mobilise if necessary to respond to any provocation by the paramilitary and fascist sectors.”

foreigneditor@peoples-press.com