Published at: 01/05/2024 09:00 PM

• On May 1, 1973, while participating in the Workers' Day demonstrations, 22-year-old labor leader Rafael Antonio Parra was shot in the back.
• After the march, Rafael Antonio traveled in a caravan through the neighborhoods of El Guarataro, Observatory and 23 de Enero, where he was followed by agents of the DISIP, to execute him in broad daylight.
• The crime occurred when Rafael Antonio was walking near El Estanque Street, Barrio Libertad de El Observatorio, behind block 44 of Sierra Maestra on January 23.
• The report given by the State's political police, the DISIP, was published as certain news.
• Every May 1st, for 40 years, police forces left behind a series of injured and dead demonstrators.
• With the pacification policy of President Rafael Caldera (1969-1974), many others began to be added to the extensive list of those tortured, murdered and reported missing in the 1960s, many others without a formula for arrest in the 70s. Among them is Rafael Antonio Parra, who was executed by a DISIP commission in the middle of the street with three shots in the back.
• Some of those “pacified” by the Copeyan government include:

1. Ramón A. Colon: 27 years old. Killed in his hometown of Aragua de Barcelona by a commission from the body of hunters patrolling in a jeep.
2. Aurelio Trocett Calma: Adult over 60 years of age. He was arrested by the Armed Forces Intelligence Service (SIFA) at his brother's house in Oonto, Edo. Anzoategui. He was identified as a collaborator of the guerrillas by Miguel Antonio Portillo, then taken to his Algarróbenos herd and tortured in the presence of family members and peasants. After being executed, the government reported that it “managed to escape from a Theater of Operations (TO)”. Date of death: 22-3-73.
3. José Viloria Gutiérrez: he was murdered by the police in Valera del Edo. Trujillo when he was demonstrating calling for the release of the imprisoned students.
4. Ángel María Castillo: nicknamed Pancho Alegría, a native of Barinas and a peasant leader captured by the DISIP in Caracas, after being betrayed by Álvaro Jiménez Silva. After being tortured, he was murdered on June 18, 1973.
5. Esladia Margarita Vásquez Rojas: On June 28, 1973, she was machine-gunned inside her house by DISIP agents, including whistleblowers Hemero Sanchez Araujo (Horacio) and César Debona Noguera (Vladimir). Esladia died with a son in her womb.
6. Noel Rodríguez: he was arrested in Caracas on 29-6-73 by a DISIP commission in which Manuel Antonio Tirado participated. He was transferred to the State of Cocollar, where he died on 6-8-74 as a result of torture.
7. Miriam Barreto Merchán: 18 years old, she was arrested by the army in Bejucal de Jusepín, edo. Monagas, transferred to Potrerito, raped and murdered on 5-1-74.

Mazo News Team