Published at: 24/04/2024 09:00 PM

• MINISTER PÉREZ ANSWERED ABOUT THE MURDERS CARRIED OUT BY DIGEPOL AGAINST LUIS ALFREDO MARTÍNEZ AND OTHER STUDENTS:
• 61 years ago, at the end of the constitutional term of Romulo Betancourt, Luis Alfredo Martínez, 22, the young worker and leader of the Communist Youth of Venezuela, Luis Alfredo Martínez, was shot down by the General Directorate of Police (Digepol).
• The events occurred when Digepol agents, who were stationed on the roof of Radio Continente, fired shots at Block Eight of Lomas de Pro Patria.
• Several young people, upon hearing machine guns clapping, threw themselves to the ground. They were: Samuel Ángel Fuenmayor (21 years old), Pedro Ebilio Muñoz (17 years old), José Ramón Muñoz (19 years old) and Luis Alfredo Martínez (22 years old).
• Luis Alfredo Martínez was assassinated.
• An hour later, the Technical Police arrived at 2 in the morning.
• Martinez was hit by a gust as he walked unnoticed, along with other friends, back home. They were all coming from a meeting in the Plaza de Pro Patria.
• The young communist was shot several times that punctured his head, back and abdomen.
• When questioned in the Chamber of Deputies of the National Congress about this act of blood and other Digepol crimes, the head of the office of the Ministry of Internal Relations, Carlos Andrés Pérez, answered categorically: “I act with the police, you settle with the courts.”
• In that month of April 1963, as a result of the police repression directed from that office, Digepol and the armed Adeco-Copeyan gangs were assassinated:
  • Francisco José García
  • Pedro Antonio Alcalá
  • Roque Lucena
  • Ali José Paredes Yéspica
  • Manuel Darío Rodríguez Parra
  • Albertina Pino de Travieso
  • Amadeo Giffoni
  • Antero Mendoza Angarita
  • José Gregorio Pinto
  • Julián Moya
  • The three sisters of Ali José Paredes Yéspica (Carmen, Elba and Doris Paredes Yéspica) eyewitnesses to the crime were locked up in Digepol cells for several weeks).

CONTEXT:

• Regarding these methods of police terror applied by the Minister of Internal Relations during the government of Rómulo Betancourt, Corvette Captain Víctor Hugo Morales recounted: “... We were summoned by Counter-Admiral Armando López Conde, commander of the marine infantry, to inform us about the situation in Caracas, where violent blood clashes were taking place, so it would be necessary to use marine infantry in repression procedures. I took the floor to express our concern about what was happening... and my position as unit commander was that I was not willing to use weapons against the people; I also referred to him the news that on several occasions they told me that there were groups of civilians shooting at the troops and then they saw them come down from the buildings to identify themselves as members of the armed gangs of AD, a fact that demonstrated without a doubt the government's involvement in causing a situation of permanent violence and thus showing that protests were part of a conspiracy against democratic institutions... (The Armed Insurrection in Venezuela, author: Pedro Pablo Linares, p. 88)”.
• During the five-year presidential term of Betancourt (1959-1964), Pro Patria, Lomas de Urdaneta, Lídice, El Guarataro, San Agustín and January 23 were the government's favorite scenarios for carrying out assaults, sieges, raids, arbitrary arrests, strafing and raids.

Mazo News Team