Published at: 11/09/2024 10:00 PM

Latest News, October 8, 1963

• “I am the only one responsible for the arrest of communist parliamentarians.” These statements were made by Rómulo Betancourt at the time when, in violation of the 1961 Constitution, he urged political persecution, the destruction of dissident cadres and a brutal police sweep in all neighborhoods of Caracas, Maracay and Valencia.
• Under his orders, the popular areas of Lomas de Urdaneta, Pro Patria, Pedro Camejo and Petare were assaulted and militarily cordoned off.
• In the first week of October 1963, a mother of a family, a girl, two students (one in Maracay) and 10 residents of Lídice were killed under government fire.
• During the military siege of Lídice, on the night of October 6, 1963, there were three dead, 10 gunshot wounded, one missing and more than a thousand arrested, when the city of Caracas was subject to police raids and military operations to quell widespread riots throughout the city (Última Noticias, October 7, 1963).
• After being declared a military zone, a nine-year-old girl, Marisela Durán, was hit by a rifle bullet that instantly blinded her life. The 19-year-old student Jesús Romero Meléndez, a resident of 138 Sucre Avenue, was admitted to the Peripheral Hospital of Catia without vital signs. Construction worker Juan Zambrano received a machine gun blast in his stomach that kept him dying for several days until he died (Clarín, October 5, 1963)
• In Petare, 19-year-old student Raúl Villanueva Pasarello died as a result of several police officers shooting at him from a patrol car for not listening to his voice out loud. His classmate, Luis Antonio Martell, was missing during the shooting (Clarín, October 5, 1963)
• In Pedro Camejo, Mrs. María Luisa Pérez de Romero was killed when shots from a police patrol destroyed her face and chest, causing her death (El Nacional, October 7, 1963).
• In Maracay, the young student Enrique Matos, 19, was murdered on the night of Friday, October 4, 1963, when military personnel shot at a vehicle that disobeyed a loud voice (El Nacional, October 5, 1963).

Context:

• At the end of September 1963, when his government ended, Romulo Betancourt decided to carry out a coup d'etat against the Constitution of 1961.
• He ordered the lifting of the parliamentary immunity of constitutionally elected deputies and senators. Everyone went to the Digepol cells or to their concentration camps.
• Political persecution intensified against thousands of comrades from his own party who disapproved of his sectarian, arrogant and anti-democratic nature.
• This wave of assassinations did not escape this wave of assassinations by members of the AD Youth, adept peasant and trade union leaders, and the radical wing of the URD.
• In October 1963, the following were assassinated: Enrique Matos, 19; María Luisa Pérez de Ramírez; Roberto García Urbano, 19.
• In November 1963, they fell: Rodolfo Osal, student; Agustín Sevilla, 16; Adalberto Barroeta, doctor; Carlos Humberto Barreto, 16; Hugo José Cortés Ocanto, 19; José María Rivas Martínez, 19 years old.
• Because of the repressive action in the neighborhoods and in retaliation for the successful strike in Caracas, the following were murdered: Germán Antonio González, Juan Olivo Mújica, Mercedes Guerrero Araque, Angela Díaz, Luisa Bahamonde, Juan Vicente Sarabia, and José Gamboa at the doors of the University City at the UCV.
• Others murdered by the government of Rómulo Betancourt were: Albertina Núñez, 22; Ángel Henry Rojas, 19; Joel Rodríguez, murdered by the police in Cantaura; José Elías López and Francisco Natera, at the hands of the police during the burial of their classmate, José Elías López.

Mazo News Team