Published at: 24/07/2024 09:00 PM

(CLARÍN, July 21, 1962)

• The farmer Esteban Padilla, a resident of the then rural area of the El Retiro de Petare sector, was found dead due to lack of medical assistance in a prefectural dungeon; he showed signs of torture. His body showed multiple fractures, broken liver and heart, as a result of a severe beating he received at the hands of unidentified police officers.
• The Delegate Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, composed of parliamentarians José Herrera Oropeza, Pedro Ortega Díaz, Freddy Melo and Enrique Betancourt, confirmed the ill-treatment received by the peasant. At first glance, the signs of physical violence were seen.
• The parliamentarians declared that the crimes that occurred and proven against left-wing political leaders, inside prisons, were the most horrendous and easy to verify.
• Mr. Esteban Padilla had no political or criminal record of any kind. He was widely known and loved throughout Petare, because of his peaceful nature and conciliatory nature.
• Four days earlier, on July 17, 1962, José Antonio Vásquez Fermín was hanged in a cell in the Prefecture of El Hatillo. The 20-year-old law student was under the order of the judicial technical police, for summary inquiries into the alleged murder of an agent. During the detention, his parents saw him alive several times and in perfect health.
• The same death penalty was applied to the labor leader José Gregorio Rodríguez, on May 24, 1962**, ** thrown from a sixth floor of the SIFA cells in the White Palace; to José Nicasio Piña at the headquarters of Digepol del edo. Falcón; and to Ali José Hernández, on September 10, 1963, who was strafed inside Digepol cells in Valencia, edo. Carabobo. Before executing him, the executioner ruled: “Now you will die like a dog!”
• Thus, the special repressive apparatus, created during the government of Rómulo Betancourt, also applied its doctrine of Democratic Security (the streets belong to the police, not to the people) inside government prisons. The police minister responsible for carrying out this policy of persecution and extermination was Carlos Andrés Pérez.

Mazo News Team