Published at: 24/07/2024 09:00 PM

(THE EXTRA, 12, 18 and 21-9-64 + WHAT, 20-5-66)

• On July 22, 1964, 60 years ago, members of the armed gangs of AD and the National Guard arrested leaders Víctor Ramón Soto Rojas “Comandante Mendoza” and Trino Barrios “Comandante Sánchez”, in the vicinity of Altagracia de Orituco.
• The arrest took place in a mobile checkpoint of the National Guard in Camoruco, after an intense encirclement of all components of the Armed Forces, when both commanders were fleeing the intense bombardment and persecution that forced them to leave the area where they were operating.
• From there, they were transferred to San Juan de los Morros and then to the National Guard Headquarters located in Plaza Madariaga in El Paraíso in Caracas. They were then handed over to a Digepol commission led by J.J. Patiño González and transferred to the cells of Los Chaguaramos.
• After suffering torture, Víctor Soto Rojas was taken to the anti-guerrilla theater of operations in Cupira, edo. Miranda to continue with them, under the command of Cap. Héctor Peña, who ordered that, in addition to torturing him, several simulated shootings be applied to him. It was later launched from a helicopter on the El Bachiller Hill.
• Trino Barrios was transferred to Hacienda Los Colorados, edo. Guárico, where he was shot, along with 12 other detainees.
• Two years later**, ** the weekly What Happens in Venezuela, No. 96, of May 20, 1966, confirmed the appearance of the bones of the peasant leader Trino Barrios, with his boots and watch on. The autopsy revealed that he received a graceful shot in the left cheekbone with an exit in the back of his skull.
• At the doors of the aforementioned farm, the SIFA firing battalion and the armed bands of AD placed a sign that read: “This is how far Commander Sánchez has come”.
• Extra No. 202, dated September 18, 1964, published the news about an official statement from the government of Raúl Leoni, where it admitted the murder of the young sociologist Víctor Ramón Soto Rojas.
• Extra No. 203, dated September 21, 1964, was entitled: “30 Dead Bodies of Shooters Denounced to Have Found in the Potreros de Guárico”. The news of the appearance of these bodies established that they belonged to young people shot in various paddocks in Altagracia de Orituco, making known the names of the municipal leaders of AD, as they were aware of the murders committed by the repressive bodies of the State in the persecution undertaken by the government against organizations not affected by it.
• In that edition of La Extra, it was published about the wave of shootings in the Guariqueña area and El Bachiller, which were not released by the conventional press.
• The discovery of 30 bodies of young men shot was mainly due to peasants alarmed by the action taken by police and military forces, in combination with members of the ruling AD party.
• Trino Barrios was born on September 15, 1923 in Aragua de Maturín, Edo. Monagas, cradle of great revolutionaries. In disagreement with the surrender policies of the Punto Fijo Pact and the persecution unleashed by Rómulo Betancourt against former party companions, he decided to join the guerrilla struggle in Cerro El Bachiller as a member of the MIR.
• Víctor Ramón Soto Rojas was born on September 26, 1931 in Altagracia de Orituco, Guárico state, son of Rosa Servanda Rojas de Soto and Víctor Manuel Soto Cabezas.

Mazo News Team