Published at: 09/10/2024 08:23 PM

(El Nacional, October 4, 1963)

• In the early morning of October 3, 1963, students Luis Manuel Rodríguez Díaz and Néstor Quiñones Martínez were arrested inside a Bahareque ranch located near the Jamucuparo Fund, located on the Morón-Píritu highway.
• The search of the humble house was carried out by 13 police officers belonging to the General Directorate of Police (DIGEPOL) under the command of Antonio Acosta, head of that repressive body in Falcón state.
• From there, they were taken to Hato El Cascabel, where at 2 am they were shot in front of the entire Rodríguez family, who owned it.
• The governor of Falcón state himself, Pablo Shaer, arrived at the scene with a machine gun in hand to coordinate, with officials from the Armed Forces Intelligence Service (SIFA), the expertise to take the fingerprints of the deceased and the payment of 50 bolivars to each of the peasants who helped dig the grave to bury them.
• Luis Manuel and Nestor were subject to an arrest warrant (dead or alive). For two months now, the Digepol power plant in Caracas had ordered its thugs to travel all over the Falconian mountains in search of the two students to assassinate them.

Context:

• Within the framework of the United States National Security Doctrine, Rómulo Betancourt authorized and financed the deployment of a military mission in Venezuela, comprised of CIA and FBI officials.
• They gave courses to Digepol, SIFA and PTJ agents for the persecution and annihilation of youth and university cadres who had climbed the mountains to form fighting fronts in various regions of Venezuela.
• These instructors, imported from the United States, trained the repressive bodies in the application of the slogan “SHOOT FIRST AND INVESTIGATE AFTERWARD” (shoot first and find out later), which Betancourt converted into a death penalty, applied during his five-year term and in successive governments.

Mazo News Team