Published at: 07/08/2024 09:00 PM

(WHAT's happening in Venezuela, March 18, 1966)

On the occasion of the letter recently published by the sons of former presidents C.A. Pérez, R. Betancourt, R. Leoni, R. Caldera and L. Herrera Campins, supporting the continued coup against the legitimate government of the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro, they should be reminded that:

• Between 1959 and 1962, R. Betancourt tripled the number of crimes committed by General Pérez Jiménez.
• However, Raúl Leoni, when he began his term in office between May and October 1965, surpassed in just six months the record for murders of his immediate predecessor and for the general overthrow:
• 60 peasants were killed.
• Acts of savagery and political predation quadrupled, and hundreds of peasants and union leaders were handed over to the torture of the Theaters of Operations (anti-guerrilla camps).
• Between 1959 and 1962, under the slogan of: “Shoot first” and with all moral restraints loose in the name of “the fight against fidelity”, he killed: Alfredo Rafael Tirado, Pedro José Ramos Núñez, Juan Francisco Osorio Magallanes, Ernesto Álvarez, Alfredo Rafael Carmona, Ana Lourdes Pacheco, Andrés Coba Casa, Aníbal José Jiménez, Carlota de Ochoa, Simón Rafael Cahualgs, Pilar Pérez Blanco, María Flores, Olga de Hernández, Rodolfo García Graterol, Rafael Manutado Itt, Pilar Ponce Blanco, Santiago Alfonso Figuera, Elias David La Rosa, Martin Palacios, Ernesto Alvión, Emilio Dos Santos. Armando Sánchez Sisco, Antonio Diez, José Zurita, Alberto Manzanares, Luis Ernesto Saavedra, Francisco José Rosales, Julián Torres, Valentín Araujo, Daniel Matute, Aquiles Bellorín, Álvaro Ruiz, Isaac Velásquez L., Concepción Tiburcio Orta, Manuel Infante, César Millán, Rafael Guerra, Enrique Leonardo Pérez, Eduvigis Colorado de Urbina, Eulalia Fuenmayor de Salas, Ángel Linares Espinosa, Julio Enrique Manzano, José Antonio Vásquez Latorre, José Montesinos, Esteban Pérez Carlos to Novoa. Enrique Leal, Rafael José Villegas, Manuel Cachutt Sahoudla, Coury, Alfonso Redrieurs, Jesús Oruna, Omar Ramones Prieto, Jesús Manuel Rojas Figueroa, Luis Martínez Añez, Vivian Hernández, Elvina de Morales, J. Pffeifer, Rafael Clemente Acosta, Ignacio Díaz Niño, José Damián Ramírez and José Gregorio Rodríguez. This is triple the number of people who were victims of the dictatorship.
• Coincidentally, also in a public letter, the then Minister of Internal Relations, Gonzalo Barrios, when questioned about the deaths of César Burguillos, Alberto Lovera, Luis Emiro Arrieta, Juan Pedro Rojas, Nicolás Hurtado Barrios, Vásquez Latorre, Juan Bautista Sánchez, Trino Barrios, Víctor Soto Rojas, Donato Carmona, Carmelo Mendoza, Manuel Ponte Rodríguez and Jesús María Castro León, declared that “the abuses, torture and harassment of this kind committed by Digepol as well they occur in the most advanced countries.”
• This letter from Barrios was described as a confession to a repressive policy imposed by police officer Carlos Andrés Pérez and executed by the Erasto Fernández gang, Captain Vegas, Inspector Leal and other Digepol agents.
• Minister Barrios' statement was a cynical way of downplaying the hundreds of victims who disappeared and shot by law enforcement officials.
• The parliamentarian José Vicente Rangel verified the authenticity of these statistics when he reported the discovery of secret cemeteries in El Tocuyo, edo. Lara, where some of the 250 who disappeared during the first year of Raúl Leoni's administration were buried (Última Noticias, September 3, 1969).
• Finally, giving Pérez Jiménez ten years of dictatorship (that is, counting the four years of the Military Junta), those killed or killed in doubtful circumstances round up to 20: Alejandro Borges, Germán González, Félix Castillo, Lte. Gilberto Carranza, Higinio Perez, Santiago Diaz, Ruiz Pineda, Cap. Wilfrido Omaña, Sgt. Ruben Perdomo, Castor Nieves Rios, Lte. León Cruz Blanco, Cdte. Damián Peña, Santiago Díaz, Socorro Cabrera, Alberto Carnevali, Pérez Pisanity, Jesus Alberto Blanco, Cap. Juan Bautista Rojas, Manuelito Pérez, Luis Hurtado Higuera, Pinto Salinas, Rufino Mendoza, Ruperto Chirinos and the rest of the farmers in Turén.

Mazo News Team