Published at: 17/09/2025 09:00 PM

(El Nacional, Panorama and Popular Tribune, September 11, 1960)

• On September 10, 1960, armed gangs established by the government of Rómulo Betancourt assassinated Ricardo Navarro, an oil union leader, during an armed assault that left 17 injured...
• The factional adecos stormed the headquarters of the Lagunillas Oil Workers Union, in the state of Zulia. Ricardo Navarro tried to close the doors of the premises and was shot several times by Democratic Action (AD) militants. He died instantly.
• During the assault, the paramilitary gangs of AD when closing the doors, turned off the lights and started shooting. An Adeco gunman by the name of José Antonio Díaz shot five shots at the Secretary of the Union's Minutes, Arturo Tremont, who miraculously managed to evade them, butchering his way through the assailants.
• Among those shot to death was Luis Pinto, the union's complaints secretary, who was shot several times while climbing the stairs to the speaker's office to demand the expulsion of the aggressors. He was paralyzed and in a wheelchair. Even so, crippled for life, he continued his union activity for five years.
• Days before, the assault was alerted by the Tribuna Popular newspaper, pointing to the existence of a circular letter issued by the General Secretariat of AD in Lagunillas addressed to all its members in order to “prepare for the definitive coup against the union”.
• After the crime, the material perpetrators went personally to the seat of the court in the case, protected by agents of the General Directorate of Police (DIGEPOL), where they threatened the judge, Luis Montiel, to allow them to see the file, in open violation of summary secrecy, and with the forbidden intention of stealing it from there.
• Faced with the coercion exercised by the murderers, the judge urgently requested help from the Municipal Police and the Technical Judicial Police (PTJ), to arrest the defendants, who already had an arrest warrant.
• Both police forces, as auxiliary organs of the court, refused to cooperate in arresting the murderers of Ricardo Navarro, putting the physical integrity of the magistrate at risk and impeding the administration of justice.
• The non-intervention of the Municipal Police and the PTJ to arrest the material perpetrators of the crime, combined with the presence of agents of the political police of Rómulo Betancourt, escorting them to the court, constituted a clear maneuver by the police authorities and the AD party to intimidate the judge and steal the file.
• Finally, the file was lost. The Copei party, in exchange for the General Secretariat of Government, lent itself to this purpose, and the murderer and the other gunmen of AD were released.
• By the date of this political assassination, just six months into office, Betancourt had taken the lives of 96 people, leaving 970 injured and 1,630 imprisoned in DIGEPOL cells or concentration camps.
• This was one of the events that marked the beginning of political persecution, torture, selective assassinations, forced disappearances and the establishment of a unilateral war, open and declared by Betancourt, against anyone who went against his doctrine of Democratic Security: “Shoot first, find out later”.

Mazo News Team