Published at: 31/07/2024 09:00 PM

(EL NACIONAL, JULY 28, 1960)

• Citizen Andrés Coba Casa was the coordinator of the 26th of July Movement in Caracas and a member of the Venezuelan Committee for the Defense of the Cuban Revolution.
• In the early morning of July 27, he was shot five times outside his house by a secret agent of the Police Intelligence Service (SIP), who went by the name of Pedro Miguel Madrid.
• The murder was carried out in the presence of the youngest son and the wife of this social leader.
• The homicidal policeman stated, at a press conference, that his immediate boss, Rafael Sequera, of the SIP, instructed him, before going to commission, to search for and assassinate Coba Casa: “Don't worry, nothing will happen to you, the guarantees are suspended...”

THE CONTEXT:

• At that time, Romulo Betancourt had already decreed the suspension of constitutional guarantees for 511 days, as soon as his government began.
• The intention gave Digepol and SIFA a green light to search homes, schools, high schools and universities without the need for a prior order issued by a judicial authority.
• Arbitrary arrests and political persecution began across the country against those who did not like Betancourt.
• On the same day that Coba Casa was assassinated in Caracas, there were mass demonstrations in favor of the Cuban Revolution on the occasion of the celebration of July 26, the commemorative date of the Assault on the Moncada Barracks.
• Portraits of Fidel Castro hung on all the lanterns in Plaza Bolívar. Coba Casa and thousands of people from Caracas brought floral offerings to the equestrian statue of the Liberator and honored the memory of José Martí.
• On the other hand, the widows of the Cuban dictatorship, led by Salvador Romani, baptistero, murderer and abject reactionary, organized a mass in the Cathedral of Caracas as an alibi and a gesture of provocation.
• This was used as a shield to fire from the inside at those who were celebrating July 26th in Plaza Bolívar.
• The agents of anti-Castroism were already operating de facto in Venezuela. The government subsidized them with all kinds of facilities (housing, jobs, travel and cars), as well as key positions within the police forces.
• From the United States, Cubans trained by the CIA and the FBI were being sent to assume senior positions in Digepol and SIFA.
• Andrés Coba Casa, was a native of Havana and was nationalized as a Venezuelan on September 30, 1953 during the administration of Marcos Pérez Jiménez. He lived in apartment No. 43 of the La Cortex Building in Colinas de Bello Monte, where he was massacred in the presence of his entire family.

Mazo News Team