Published at: 09/10/2024 08:54 PM

(EL NACIONAL, EL MUNDO, PANORAMA, EL IMPULSO and 2001, October 5 and 6, 1982)

• Operation Extermination was the synonym of total annihilation that, in big headlines, the press highlighted to announce the massacre of 55 people in “The Cantaura Massacre”. This was a criminal action, carried out, with premeditation and malice, by the government of Luis Herrera Campins at 5:45 in the morning of October 4, 1982.
• This operation was carried out jointly by 378 army “hunters” and 96 DISIP agents, under the orders of the Director of Operations, Henry López Sisco. The latter would participate in the assault, torture and brutal execution of nine totally unarmed people in “The Yumare Massacre”, on May 8, 1986.
• In Cantaura, two OVBronco military aircraft, two Canberra, two Bell UH combat helicopters and a **helicopter **** from the DISIP participated, which that morning carried out low flights shooting down 23 of the 41 members of the Américo Silva Guerrilla Front, who were installed in the area known as “Los Changurriales del Mocho Evans”.
• On the third day, the number rose to 36 killed and then to 55. Today it is known that not only Red Flag militants were annihilated, but also peasants in the area.
• Three farms were hit by shrapnel and aerial bombardment, located near Cantaura, leaving several dead and injured.
• To the Hospital de El Tigre, 23 urns for adults and one white one for children were transferred to El Tigre Hospital, demonstrating that the massacre had minors among its victims.
• An indigenous village, called “La Cariña”, was severely bombed by aircraft, with several casualties among its inhabitants.
• Two journalists from the 2001 newspaper, Ediccio Balestrini and Hilario Mujica, confirmed that the number of deaths rose to 55, including 6 women shot, 3 of them pregnant.
• While the Canberras were dropping 250-pound bombs and the Broncos strafed ambushes, 400 military and police personnel carried out a siege to cut off all exits from the camp. However, 18 members of the Red Flag managed to escape with their lives.
• “Two former guerrilla fighters betrayed the camp... Due to a report from two former guerrilla fighters, it was possible to discover the Red Flag camp near Cantaura”, as El Nacional called on October 8, 1982.
• The informers were Alirio and Norberto Rabanales, who flew over the area in a DISIP helicopter, to indicate the exact location of the camp.
• Coincidentally, Gabriel Puerta Aponte, head of the Red Flag, was safely transferred to the Military Hospital. He planted the Rabanales brothers in the camp and then did the dirty work with the DISIP.

THE FACTS:

• During the Red Flag National Tactical Command (CTN) meeting, held weeks earlier, Gabriel Puerta Aponte was warned about the inconvenience of incorporating the Rabanales brothers into the Américo Silva Front. Ignoring this decision, Puerta Aponte planted them in those guerrilla columns, where they acted as infiltrators of the DISIP.
• Nolberto and Alirio Rabanales arrived days earlier at the meeting site on the orders of Gabriel Puerta Aponte. While there, there were many complaints about the constant “outbursts” of the brothers, who were constantly absent from the camp. One day before the massacre, they suddenly disappeared without asking Commander Rincón for authorization.
• On several occasions, the peasants in the area alerted the guerrillas about the movements of army and DISIP troops in the vicinity of the camp. However, “El Catire” Roberto Rincón received orders from Puerta Aponte not to mobilize. El Catire was the commander of the Américo Silva Front.
• All the guerrilla fighters massacred were disfigured by gunshots they received in the head. According to eyewitnesses, many were brought to their knees and executed with gunshots in the back of the head, then grinded by machine gun bursts.
• In this regard, the President of the Republic, Luis Herrera, declared that it was “an alleged confrontation”. However, it is obvious that the 400 military personnel and the seven warplanes sent and authorized by him were a disproportionately superior force compared to the 41 guerrilla fighters surrounded, precariously armed and caught in intense air and ground fire.
• The exhumations carried out in 2011 revealed that most of the victims were savagely tortured and executed.
• On the 42nd anniversary of this State crime, we remember the martyrs of Cantaura:
• Alfonso Salazar, Sister Fanny
• Alonzo Carrasquel, Diego Alfredo
• Arzola Hernandez, Carlos Jesus
• Becerra Navarro, Jorge Luis
• Castro Batista, Ruben Alfredo
• Echegarreta Garcia, Antonio Maria
• Estevez Arranz, Maria Luisa
• Farías Mejias, Julio César
• Garcia, Carmen Rosa
• Gomez, Luis Jose
• Gutierrez Rojas, Eumenedis Ysoida
• Herrera Veracierta Baudilio, Valdemar
• Jimenez, Beatriz del Carmen
• Marquez Velásquez, Enrique Jose
• Martell Daza, Eusebio Ricardo
• Nunez, Jose Miguel
• Morillo, Ildemar Lorenzo
• Pacín Collaso, Nelson Antonio
• Tejada Zapata, Mauricio Alejandro
• Sambrano Mira, Carlos Alberto
• Guzmán Cordero, Emperatriz
• Rincon Cabrera, Roberto Antonio
• Zerpa Colina, Jose Antonio
• Three civilians shot who were not linked to the Red Flag plenary session:
  • Iraida Cuenca
  • Roger Carías
  • Luis Anzola

Mazo News Team