Published at: 12/06/2024 09:00 PM

(EL NACIONAL, June 13, 1959)

• On Friday, June 12, two workers and a school teacher were seriously injured by gun fire, when the commander of the Bolivar City Garrison ordered the troops to open fire on the people gathered in front of the court protesting the unusual charges that a prosecutor read in favor of four National Security killers.
• The event occurred shortly after five o'clock in the afternoon, when Lieutenant Colonel José Antonio Silva Niño gave the order to shoot into a crowd of more than 3,000 people that prevented the thugs from leaving the court.
• The soldiers opened fire at the refusal of the demonstrators to disperse to get rid of the accused. When the town disbanded, the bleeding bodies of: Aurelia Pérez Pulido (18 years old), **Juan Soto (**25 years old) and Antonio Obuena (23 years old) appeared lying on the floor. They were all taken to the city's central hospital on an emergency basis.
• In that health center, after 11 o'clock in the evening, the young teacher Aurelia Pérez Pulido died from gunshot wounds received at the demonstration.
• The teacher was the second visible victim of the repressive policy of the Romulo Betancourt government.
• Betancourt's police policy was to assimilate to his new special apparatus of repression and intelligence the majority of the agents of the extinct National Security, who had the horrendous episodes of torture that they applied in the basements of that headquarters erased from their files.
• Aurelia Pérez Pulido was a renowned leader of the Communist Youth of Venezuela and the impact of her assassination produced immense protests across the country, and especially in the working-class and popular areas of San Félix.
• Meanwhile, Carlos Andrés Pérez, then Director of Policy at the Ministry of Internal Relations, declared, referring to the massive protests: “Absolute calm reigns throughout the country.”
• “Nothing has happened here”, was the order of the day. In fact, for reasons that until today are still unknown, all the National Security files were given to the incinerator furnaces located southwest of Caracas, in the Coche residential area.
• Only a few files were saved and were entrusted to senior leaders and personalities of AD and Copei. According to later revelations, his pages contained the data of those adecos and copeyans who received monthly amounts of money in exchange for confidential information and the delivery of their party mates.

Mazo News Team