Friday, November 24, 2006

Armed stand-off at 1 Herald Plaza

In a bizarre incident The Miami Herald is reporting that El Nuevo Herald cartoonist Jose Varela "barricaded himself" in the editor's office on the 6th floor of the Herald building.

El Nuevo Herald blogger Rui Ferreira claims that in a telephone conversation at 11:43 this morning Varela told him:

“You are speaking with the new editor of the newspaper, and I am here to unmask the true conflicts in the paper. Here they make fun of of the exiles, there are problems with pay… you know that the newspaper will not last, this little problem is finished, this is a pig sty and somebody must pay, somebody has to do it, because this is going to be like cleaning the excrement. It is about time since they are making fun of of people, today they are going to see it as an act of violence. But somebody must pay and that is going to be [the editor Humberto] Castelló.”
According to Ferreira Varela entered the El Nuevo Herald newsroom at about 10:40 this morning dressed in camouflage fatigues. After having heated words with one of the staffers he entered Castello's empty office and pulled out a "machine gun" and began throwing things. Rui says last week Varela claimed to have purchased an UZI because he didn't feel secure in Jupiter, where he had moved after his divorce.

This story is developing.

More here and here.

Hat tips: Val and Enrique

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