Published at: 13/11/2024 10:00 PM

(Clarín, November 19, 1963)

• Francisco V. Sevilla, a 17-year-old high school student, was a student at the José Rafael Pocaterra Night School. On the morning of 18-11-63, he was with hundreds of students on the corner of the Liceo Pedro Gual, located on Avenida Bolívar in the city of Valencia.
• It was then that officials from the municipal police and the General Police Directorate (DIGEPOL) shot at those gathered there. Francisco Valentín was shot, burning clothes, in the abdominal area.
• When the young man was shot down, the homicidal officer kicked him several times. His body was lying on the pavement until, overcoming the fear of police hunting, his companions took him to the Central Hospital where he died.
• By that day, the Student Federation had called for a peaceful demonstration on the occasion of the suspension of secondary school teaching activities. Concentration to be held in the rectorate of the University of Carabobo.
• The march took place in the highest order until police officers surrounded the Pedro Gual High School and began shooting at the boys who were fleeing in all directions.
• The Federation of Middle Students (FEM) announced that during the police assault there were three seriously injured high school students and fifty arrested.
• A strong statement from the WEF condemned the government of Rómulo Betancourt, pointing out that he was solely responsible for ending the life of Francisco Valentín Sevilla.
• The burial of Francisco Valentín was a true manifestation of rejection of police barbarism, and of solidarity with another of the many innocent victims of the bloodthirsty government of Romulo Betancourt.
• During this last goodbye, Digepol attacked the funeral procession and against the reporters of the newspaper El Carabobeño, Moisés Domínguez and José Sánchez, who after being brushed and butchered, were arbitrarily arrested while trying to cover what happened.
• The murdered student was the oldest of six children born in the union between Franco Iglesias and Ángela Sevilla. His only passion, aside from his studies, was baseball, a sport to which he devoted most of his free time.

Mazo News Team