Published at: 22/01/2025 09:00 PM

TRANSPORT STOPPAGE

(CLARÍN, January 21 to 25, 1962)

• On January 21, 1962, in San Cristóbal, edo. Táchira, 3 people were killed, at gunpoint, during the transport strike called to protest against the new Civil Liability Insurance Act, which, without prior consultation with the transport unions, was imposed to favor economic groups.
• In the capital of Tachirense, the victims were: a boy, a lady and a man shot by members of the National Guard and the police of that entity. There were 170 detainees.
• After the three deaths in San Cristóbal, the peaceful labor strike took on an insurrectionary nature against the Betancourt government, spread throughout Venezuela, and explosions broke out in Caracas, Acarigua, Maracaibo, Mérida and La Guaira, where state security forces opened fire at the demonstrators.
• Specifically in San Cristóbal, the lobbyists of the armed gangs of AD, together with members of the National Guard and officials of the General Directorate of Police (Digepol), attacked the crowd shooting left and right at unarmed men, women and children.
• AD's parapolice gangs and scabs, in coordination with Digepol and the National Guard, were responsible for 40 deaths, 150 injuries and more than 1,000 detainees.
• The drivers' strike, in January 1962, was legally called by the Transport Union and progressive sectors of the Confederation of Workers of Venezuela (CTV) to oppose the government's imposition of onerous civil liability insurance, approved inconsultly with affiliated unions, which only favored the elites that own insurance companies.

Mazo News Team