Published at: 19/03/2025 08:00 PM

THE KIDNAPPING, TORTURE AND SHOOTING OF FARMER VICENTE BERMÚDEZ CONTINUED IN THE UTMOST SILENCE

(What to do? , March 12-18, 1975)

• In the 18th edition of the weekly What to do? , its director Miriam Barreto, announced the torture and shooting of a peasant, whose death was silenced by all the print, radio and television media of the time.
• Vicente Bermúdez was the modest owner of a warehouse located in the Los Cordones hamlet, jurisdiction of the Cedeño District of the Monagas state.
• He was taken out of his business by force and kidnapped at the end of February 1975, during the administration of Carlos Andrés Pérez. Left behind were seven orphaned children and a widow without any sustenance.
• “Chente” Bermúdez was arrested on charges of being a guerrilla liaison and transferred to the Paramaconi Fort in Maturín where he was tortured and shot.
• His arrest, carried out by agents of the Military Intelligence Directorate (DIM), was due to the allegation, for alleged subversive activities, made by an adeco by the name of Pio Parejo.
• Bermudez, together with his wife, Juvalda Rivero and seven children, had a small ranch. Their income came mainly from the crops they tilled in their conuco and the sales of the winery.
• His whistleblower, Parejo, accused him of “being a link for guerrilla groups to which he sold supplies.”
• His executioners tortured him to the point of burning his genitals; seeing that they could not extract any confession from him, they murdered him.
• At the time of the exhumation of the body, it was possible to show that his hands were handcuffed, signs of a severe beating and several bullet wounds he received in the chest when he was shot.
• His body was handed over to his widow and orphans five days after he was abducted.
• Vicente Bermúdez was killed because he didn't speak or give any kind of information to the tormentors.

Mazo News Team