Published at: 22/05/2024 09:00 PM

“Extensive Information Offered by Interior Minister to the Congress on Suicide”

• 62 years ago, on May 25, José Gregorio Rodríguez, the union leader of the PCV, was arrested together with his wife by the Democratic Action police gangs.
• He was later transferred to the torture rooms of the General Police Directorate (Digepol). Then, still alive, he was thrown from the fourth floor of that police headquarters.
• When questioned, the Minister of Internal Relations, Carlos Andrés Pérez, argued before Congress that the detainee committed suicide.
• However, in the midst of the questioning carried out by the Committee on Internal Policy, there were reliable facts and evidences in the face of which Pérez fell silent:

1. Barbarita Blanco de Rodríguez, José Gregorio's wife, heard her husband's screams and moans from her cell when he was being tortured.
2. José Gregorio's body had 50 wounds caused by penetrating sharp weapons.
3. At the time the body was lifted off the pavement, it was handcuffed, making it impossible for it to jump out of a window without help.
4. The body fell backwards and yet had a six-centimeter wound on the forehead.
5. As a result of the brutal beating inflicted, the kidneys were practically destroyed, as were the liver and some ribs with clear signs that he was hit with plastic-lined cachipolas (black jack).
6. Faced with all these allegations, Minister Pérez argued that the arrested union leader was “a highly dangerous criminal”.
7. All the newspapers that denied the official version of “suicide” were raided and shut down (Clarín, La Hora, La Extra and Izquierda).
8. The final report of the Internal Policy Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, chaired by José Vicente Rangel, concluded that José Gregorio died while in detention in Digepol, and that due to the findings of the autopsy he died due to multiple fractures, liver and kidney rupture and internal explosion of vital organs.

Mazo News Team