Published at: 28/05/2025 09:00 PM

(The World-Latest News, May 25, 1972)

• During the offensive unleashed by the Government of Rafael Caldera on January 23 and several sectors of Catia, the 13-year-old elementary school student Norberto José Hernández died on the night of May 24, 1972 as a result of shots fired by agents of the Metropolitan Police of Caracas (PM).
• The minor was at home when a gunshot lodged in his brain, instantly blinding his life.
• The police shooting, to disperse student riots, took place near the apartment of the murdered young man, marked with number C-74 of Block 6 in Lomas de Urdaneta.
• Norberto José was the son of María de Hernández and José del Carmen Hernández. His brother, Rafael Hernández, explained how one of the projectiles, fired from a PM patrol, hit the child's head, as he was preparing to drink a drink near the window of his house.
• The parents transferred the unfortunate minor to the Catia Peripheral Hospital, where he was admitted without life.
• That night, police officers, who were traveling in PM patrol units, opened fire on motorcyclists and students protesting the murder of another 12-year-old boy, Luis Enrique Lugo, who a few days earlier, was shot and killed by a PM patrol unit.
• These protests intensified when news broke about the death of Norberto Hernández, in the sectors adjacent to the block where he was assassinated.
• Regarding these events, the then Minister of Defense, General Martín García Villasmil, declared that “the riots must be suppressed with greater energy”.

Mazo News Team