Published at: 25/09/2024 10:00 PM

(EL NACIONAL + 2001, SEPTEMBER 20, 1984)

• Regarding the figures of The Tazón Massacre, which occurred exactly 40 years ago, the traditional press fell short. In fact, more than 35 people were injured and shot by the National Guard.
• The number of injured, near the Hoyo de la Puerta toll booth, caused the Car Hospital and the University Clinical Hospital to collapse for three days.
• 43 students were admitted as an emergency, among the more than 200 who were traveling to Caracas, and who were surprised by the violent action of the military personnel.
• What happened, 40 years ago, directly involved the then Minister of Internal Relations, Octavio Lepage; who on July 26, 1976 declared, with an unusual tone, that Jorge Rodríguez Sr. died a natural death in a DISIP cell; who was also accused as the mastermind of the murder of 9 students in The Yumare Massacre (08-05-1986), holding the same position.
• The more than 200 university students came from Maracay, on four buses from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Agronomy, with the purpose of joining a protest against the elimination of student benefits that had been repealed by the government of Jaime Lusinchi.
• The Confederation of University Student Centers came to the defense of the injured, and to this end it called for a general demonstration.
• That day, the Central University of Venezuela was the scene of a closed shootout, where Metropolitan Police officers attacked the students with gunfire, tear gas and pellet cartridges poisoned with nuts and bolts.
• As a result, that day, a student was killed by the police in the Plaza de Las Tres Graces. This was the 27-year-old, Douglas Armando Blanco, who was admitted to the Car Hospital without vital signs. His name does not appear in the statistical records of those executed by the police in the Fourth Republic.
• Lepage justified the excessive use of law enforcement, stating that the buses had been machine-gunned, on his orders, because the students had kidnapped them.

Mazo News Team