Published at: 31/01/2024 09:00 PM

• On January 28, 1963, the Industrial Technical School (ETI) of Los Chaguaramos was closed for the first time.
• A group of hooded men, belonging to armed AD gangs, posing as students, entered that headquarters to kidnap the director and four teachers. That same night, the temporary closure decree was issued.
• The truth is that that day, the ETI was machine-gunned from a patrol by Digepol officials.
• Likewise, the Cristóbal Rojas School of Plastic Arts was subject to bursts of machine guns fired from Digepol patrols.
• Throughout the 1960s, ETI were assaulted several times by armed gangs of AD (lobbyists). On as many other occasions, their headquarters were attacked, closed down and their students persecuted.
• Rómulo Betancourt, hand in hand with Fedecamaras, followed instructions from North American vehicle manufacturers who saw highly qualified ETI graduates as a threat to their policies of absolute market domination.
• It was under pressure from the Ford Foundation, established in Venezuela since 1960, that the governments of Betancourt, Leoni and Caldera, using false information about the poor quality of technical training, agreed to paralyze them and then close them permanently.
• Finally, in 1969, the new President of the Republic of Venezuela, Rafael Caldera (1969-1974), through Decree 120, of August of that year, decided to close them permanently following instructions from the assemblers, and ignoring the same oil companies that recruited ETI graduates to work in oil fields, given their high technical preparation and performance in the hydrocarbon industry.
• In addition, the construction, metallurgical, metalworking, electrical, livestock and agro-industry sectors were devoid of efficient technicians for the development of their economic activities.
• By that date, Venezuela had 39 industrial schools, 55 craft schools, 61 trade institutes and 5 agricultural technical schools, with a total of 112,161 students. Considerable estimate for a country that had 11,011,335 inhabitants.
• The elimination of ETI severely affected the entire educational network, which had obtained high enrollment and training rates since its creation in 1945 by General Isaías Medina Angarita.
• The vacuum created by Decree 120 of August 1969 left Venezuela without sufficient human talent to serve the different sectors of the economy that were driving ongoing industrial development.
• In contrast, Caldera created diversified cycles and polytechnic schools, eliminating at a stroke the levels of excellence achieved by STI after 25 years of sustained growth.

Mazo News Team