Officials of the Scientific, Penal and Criminology Investigation Police Agency (Cicpc) arrested two people for allegedly spreading false rumors in the social network site Tweeter aimed at destabilizing Venezuela's banking system.

Wilmer Flores Trosel, the director of the Cicpc, said in a press release that the detainees were Luis Enrique Acosta Oxford, who had a cell phone with tweets that show he created the first message that was spread through the micro-blogging site, and Carmen Cecilia Nares Castro. In her case, the police seized two hard drives, two USB flash drives and a cell phone.

"False rumors on social networks are punished under Article 448 of the banking law. This means that anyone who spreads malicious rumors by any means, e-mail, SMS, messages through Twitter, Facebook, or any other technological tool, called aloud or through any other mass media, is committing a crime."

The law provides punishments ranging from nine to 11 years in prison.

Translated by Gerardo Cárdenas