Mother of murdered boys asks church to declare them martyrs

Mother of the three boys who were murdered near Caracas earlier this week said Thursday she would ask the Catholic church to declare them martyrs -- the first step toward sainthood in the church's system.

"We are not crying for their deaths, we are happy because they will be resurrected," Gladys Diab de Faddoul told reporters before a funeral mass in eastern Caracas for the boys, aged 17, 13, and 12.

The boys with dual Canadian-Venezuelan citizenship and their driver, were found dead in Yare, 40 km southeast of Caracas, with shotgun wounds to their heads. Justice Minister Jesse Chacon said they were killed in a way intended to intimidate society.

The four were kidnapped on Feb. 23 by unidentified men dressed as police, near a police station in Caracas.

John Faddoul, the childrens' father, is a Lebanese-born businessman with Canadian nationality, who has lived in Venezuela for more than 20 years.

The kidnapping outraged Venezuelans on Wednesday, with hundreds blocking Caracas' main highways to demand that the government take measures to deal with the rampant crimes in the country.

Source: Xinhua