Navigator

Search



OMAR BARBOZA AND HIS DEATH WELLS (I)

Published at: 14/08/2024 09:00 PM

(THE CARACAS DIARY, May 2, 1986)

  • Faced with the discovery of more than 600 human bones located in different parts of the Edo. Zulia, the then governor of that entity, Omar Barboza, declared that they were “cow bones deposited by slaughterhouses”.
  • Contrary to what Governor Barboza said, these human bone dumps were actually graves dug by the Edo's law enforcement agencies. Zulia to try to disappear traces of the victims they were executing.
  • According to investigations carried out by a Committee of Senators and Deputies of the National Congress, it was concluded that “there can be no greater doubt of the complicity of law enforcement agencies in these disappearances”.
  • For the deputies who requested investigations of the well, located in the Bajo Grande sector of Hacienda Quintero in Maracaibo, what was discovered was “a dark spectacle, despite the fact that the authorities intend to minimize it.”
  • To avoid all responsibility, the governor added that “if the broken bones are not cow bones, then this is a conspiracy against law enforcement agencies.”
  • The truth is that, as a result of his statements, all excavations were hampered and Governor Barboza used all his power to prevent these investigations from taking place.
  • The governor banned the passage of forensic doctors to give evidence of the autopsies carried out.
  • Journalists and photojournalists were evicted from the area and were unable to cover information about the graves discovered and the human remains found there.
  • However, in this edition of El Diario de Caracas, it was possible to publish the photos, the remains of the executed victims and the identification of two of the 600 missing; they were Nelson Enrique Hernández and José Alberto Carrillo, whose respective identity cards were found in their pockets.
  • Additionally, in that same report, the bones of Jaime Mauricio Ibarra and Jorge Rogelio López were identified.
  • One of the PTJ officials, present there, stated that “these were criminals and that's why they had been killed”.
  • The repression that occurred between 1984-1989, during which Omar Barboza ruled in Zulia and President Jaime Lusinchi in Venezuela, is his sole responsibility.
  • Both are co-responsible for the excavated trenches where 600 bodies of the victims attributed to their management and to the police forces that were under their command ended up.
  • The governor was a favorite partner of then-president Lusinchi, in more than one shady business**, ** and he rose to the first judiciary of Zulia thanks to the sponsorship of Zuliano billionaire Beto Finol.
  • To the efforts of the deputy for the MAS, Luis Homez, we owe all the complaints and actions carried out to clarify the hundreds of executions carried out by the Zulian police forces.
  • Thanks to this deputy to the Legislative Assembly, today we can learn about those 600 missing persons who became part of the list of those executed at the time of the Representative Democracy of AD and Copei.

Mazo News Team