Published at: 07/02/2024 09:00 PM

• On Saturday, January 12, 1963, the young men were massacred by uniformed police officers: Alejo Celis, 19, and Carlos Martínez, 17.
• That day, the Vice Admiral of the Venezuelan Navy, Wolfgang Larrazábal, returned to the country. The two boys, waving the Venezuelan flag and confident that constitutional guarantees were restored, left their homes to welcome those who fully respected public liberties and citizen rights during the ten months of their presidency.
• This enthusiastic reception was joined by thousands of followers who accompanied Larrazábal in a caravan, from the runway in Maiquetía to Caracas. His candidacy enjoyed great support in all popular sectors of the country.
• In the midst of these joyous demonstrations, Alejo Celis was shot in the chest by a gendarme in the vicinity of the Mexican Cinema.
• Carlos Martínez, was intercepted on Maury de Catia Street by a police officer, who, in addition to shooting him once in the chest, strafed him.
• At that time, the minister of internal relations, Carlos Andrés Pérez, overwhelmed the police persecution of the supporters of Vice Admiral Larrazabal, as well as the dissident sectors of the adeco ARS group, which became the second division of AD (PRIN), and the revolutionary wing of URD.
• That year of 1963, newspapers such as La Extra, El Venezolano, Clarín, La Hora and WHAT is happening in Venezuela? , were raided and their printing presses vandalized by Digepol.
• Its editors (José Vicente Rángel, José Herrera Oropeza, Orlando Araujo and Eleazar Díaz Rangel) were put behind bars for the crime of reporting on police excesses, shootings and murders committed against young people and leaders of these parties who joined the wave of national discontent.

Mazo News Team