Published at: 27/03/2024 09:00 PM

• Yolanda Virriel de Hurtado, filled with satisfaction for her husband's dignity, recounted how six long years in prison had passed without being charged or having any knowledge of the reasons for which he was arrested.
• On another occasion, shortly before he was shot and disappeared (23-3-67), Lt. Hurtado wrote this short letter to her children: “Yolandita, Nicolás Alejandro and Valentina: My dear quartet!
I love you very much, I love you and I remember you every moment... I am worried for all of you, but I have firm confidence in your mother; she will know how to take good care of you, while I am working in agriculture, everything is going well and I hope for a good harvest. I remembered a lot of Valentina on [November 8] and Nico on the 16th of last month. They counted the 'Happy Birthday'. How are they doing in the studies? Soon I'll give him a longer cover letter. Don't stop following mom's instructions. Tell her that I love her very much, as much as you do. For all a thousand kisses from dad.”
• Lieutenant Ej. Nicolás Hurtado Barrios was born on November 6, 1934 in Calabozo, Guárico state. Along with Moncada Vidal, he was part of the so-called “White Palace Revolution” (27-9-58). As a result, he was taken prisoner and imprisoned on Donkey Island, where he wrote the book Why Do We Fight? An excerpt of it says: “We cannot continue to be indifferent to the tragedy that Venezuela is experiencing... What we can be sure of is that our country has never been as intervened as it is now by foreign capital, which is undoubtedly where it obtains the greatest dividends is in Venezuela, because of the ruined and shameless way in which this puppet government is delivered... Venezuelan society, with its very different classes, bears the full weight of the monopoly oppression that robs us of raw materials and the market; this oppression exercised by Yankee imperialism is initially reflected in the National Upper Bourgeoisie, which in order to survive oppresses, in turn, the petty bourgeoisie composed of mediocre businessmen and ranchers, who in turn end the oppressive cycle of workers and peasants.”
• Upon his release, he took courses in High Military Command in Vietnam and China, after his exile he smuggled into Venezuela, and joined the José Leonardo Chirinos Guerrilla Front.
• Finally, on March 23, 1967, under the government of Raúl Leoni, he was arrested, tortured, shot and disappeared. His executioners cut off his arms and then threw them on the table in the rural house of some peasants where he spent the night before being executed. All this as a death threat to all the peasants in that area.
• José Vicente Rangel was always loyal, supportive and consistent in his friendship and assistance to his widow, Yolanda Virriel, and the four orphaned children of the missing martyr. In honor of them and in memory of Lt. Hurtado wrote an article entitled “The memory that never ceases”, which in an excerpt states: “... It's not easy to get away from memory when it pierces the most sensitive part of the human being. When there is a vague notion of the final destination that a loved one will face. When there are thousands of questions without answers. When time permeates images and words; when someone clings to the impossible search and to fleeting legends and truthful information...”.

Mazo News Team