Senior Curacao politician shot dead while having a beer with friends

DutchNews.nl, Monday 06 May 2013

The leader of Curacao’s biggest government party and a fervent campaigner for independence has been shot dead close to his home.

(ANP)

Helmin Wiels, 54, headed the ruling party Pueblo Soberano but chose to remain in parliament when it became part of the government. He was shot by two men on the Marie Pompoen beach who drove off in a gold coloured Kia, Nos television said.

Wiels was having a beer with friends, having sent home his bodyguard earlier in the day. A spokesman for his party said they suspect organised crime to be behind the killing because of Wiels work in combatting corruption.

The Carribean island of Curacao is a former Dutch colony and now forms an independent country within the kingdom of the Netherlands.

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Curacao politician Helmin Wiels shot dead