El Porteñazo: Armed expression that emerges in the face of the repression of Rómulo Betancourt (+62 years old)

Published at: 02/06/2024 08:17 AM

On June 2, 1962, El Porteñazo, a civic-military uprising took place at the Agustín Armario Naval Base in Puerto Cabello against the injustices of the government of Rómulo Betancourt.

A group of mid-ranking officers, led by frigate captain Pedro Medina Silva and ship captain Manuel Ponte Rodríguez, took all the military and police institutions in the sector, as well as the Radio Puerto Cabello 1290 AM radio station, where they broadcast messages about democracy and inviting the people to join the Liberation Rebellion.

Betancourt, upon learning of the attempted coup d'etat, mercilessly sent his troops to bomb the site, leading to a frontal battle between the insurgent forces of the General Rafael Urdaneta Marine Infantry Battalion (who had joined the uprising of the officers and officers of the naval base and armed civil groups) and the troops of the Carabobo battalion that had been transferred from Valencia, under the command of Colonel Alfredo Monch, to the then famous and tragic site of La Alcantarilla, Mippci reports.

This confrontation left 400 dead and 700 injured, between representatives of the government of Romulo Betancourt and the Liberating Rebellion, as announced by the interior minister of the time.

62 years after this act of courage by those men who love democracy, it is considered one of the main uprisings against the terrorist façade of the Fourth Republic disguised as democracy.

Mazo News Team