Caracas, Venezuela, Mar 22, 2019 / 02:02 am
A Venezuelan cardinal has called on state security forces to exercise civil disobedience when given orders to use lethal force against citizens.
"State security agencies exist not to take care of the government but to take care of the citizens," said Cardinal Baltazar Porras, at a press conference this week.
"Therefore every order that is given that goes against the lives of the citizenry is an order to kill, it is an order which there is no duty to carry out nor heed, because civil disobedience is also a fundamental right," the cardinal stressed.
Porras, who serves as archbishop of Merida and apostolic administrator of Caracas, stressed the disobeying unjust orders is both a right and a duty for members of the security forces.