Published at: 08/04/2026 09:00 PM

(EL NACIONAL - CLARÍN, Thursday, April 5, 1962)

• On Wednesday, April 4, 1962, leaving classes at the Liceo Agustín Aveledo, a crossroads with El Carmen and Gato Negro streets, the boy Álvaro Ruiz González was murdered by armed gangs of Democratic Action (AD).
• It was 5:20pm, when Álvaro Ruiz, with his school supplies in hand, went out with his younger brother and a group of fellow students.
• At that precise moment, outside the high school, he was shot in the forehead that shattered his face, falling flat on his face on the floor.
• This brutal infanticide was caused, cowardly, by members of an armed government gang led by the Adeco lobbyist Rubén Charlita Muñoz, who unexpectedly, at the time of leaving school, unleashed a shooting against the students of the Agustín Aveledo High School.
• Ana Luisa Thomas, a nurse, who was at the scene of the events, stated that when she approached the bloodied body of the boy lying on the floor, she managed to see the murderer, who threatened her with death to keep her from getting closer. As she did not give up in her attempt to provide help, the killer fired a second shot at her, which fortunately was not right.
• Later, this heroic woman, a nursing professional, gave to the media an exact and detailed narrative of the armed assault that occurred against children, in addition to a very detailed spoken portrait of the infanticide.
• The doctors and nurses, from the hospital where he was admitted, handed the child's body directly over to the desperate mother, Eduvigis González de Ruiz, to prevent it from being stolen by agents of the General Directorate of Police (DIGEPOL).
• In order to prevent the wake, the agents of this police force raided the courtyards and surroundings of the humble house, where their classmates, friends and family gathered.
• However, the crowd was such that they managed to break the police siege and, as the funeral procession progressed, they were unexpectedly ambushed by a contingent of Digepoles who shot to break up the crowd that was marching peacefully. This happened in front of the Miguel Antonio Caro Normal School.
• In an attempt to hijack the coffin, the house of the murdered boy's family was raided by DIGEPOL, which was located in X alley in Vista al Mar, in Los Magallanes de Catia. However, the entire neighborhood showed up to vigorously protest against this repeated practice of the adeco government.
• Álvaro Ruiz was the son of the street goods vendor, Nicasio Ruiz and Eduvigis González. He was studying sixth grade and was enrolled in the H course.
• This was the third year of the government of Rómulo Betancourt (1959-1964), during which armed assault by government gangs, accompanied by police officers, against children and young students was a common practice.
• In Caracas alone, in that first quarter of 1962, under this savage modality of armed herd assault, carried out against children and students,
• The armed gangs of AD blinded the lives of:
  • Aquiles Bellorín Morgado
  • Omar Ramones Prieto
  • Leopoldo Salazar Romero
  • Ana Lourdes Pacheco
  • Aníbal José Jiménez
  • Simón Hortaja
  • Isaac Luigi
  • Cástor Carballo
  • Justo Camacho
  • José Ortiz
  • Simon Rafael Cahualga
  • Carlota de Ochoa
  • Pablo Guillermo Rodríguez
  • José Gustavo Quiroz
  • King Miguel Arvieca
  • Francisco Osorio Magallanes
  • Isaac Rafael Velásquez Luy
  • Martín Palacios
  • Elías David la Rosa
  • Ramon Augusto Guevara Solorzano.

Mazo News Team