Published at: 29/07/2026 09:00 PM

(EL Nacional and 2001, July 26 and 27, 1976)

• 60 years ago, at a time when his slogans and speeches were voiced by students in all high schools and universities in the country, three years after founding and leading a political movement with national repercussions such as the Socialist League (LS) and of directly opposing the repressive policies of the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez I; a young man, 34 years old, Jorge Rodríguez, was subjected to a savage beating and finally assassinated in the torture rooms at the headquarters of the General Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention (DISIP) in Los Chaguaramos.
• For that date, the newspapers El Nacional and 2001, reviewed that sadly famous press conference, prepared by the then Minister of Internal Relations, Octavio Lepage, whose evasive statements were astonished by the cold cynicism with which he asserted: “Jorge Rodríguez was found dead in his cell of the DISIP, of sudden or natural death.” Trying to hide the atrocities committed and covered up from his office. Likewise, an attempt was made to glimpse, in this meeting with the media, a series of justifications for holding the victim of the recent kidnapping of the senior executive of Owens Illinois, William Niehous, responsible.
• Jorge Rodríguez was arrested on Friday, July 23, 1976. Two days later, on Sunday 25th, he was found dead in a DISIP cell. According to the autopsy protocol, his death occurred as a result of internal bleeding, liver rupture, as well as severe chest and abdominal contusions.
• All this reveals that he was subjected to prolonged torture sessions by DISIP agents. The material authors were: Guillermo Zambrano, Itamar Ramírez, Braulio Gudiño, Omar Riobueno Tremaria and Aristides Lander.
• The operation to capture, kidnap, torture and kill Jorge Rodríguez (father) was also the work of the Death Gang. This was a group of former guerrilla whistleblowers and former left-wing militants, whom Rodríguez challenged face to face more than once.
• As always, José Vicente Rangel was in the front line of fire alongside Rodríguez's widow, children and family, activating all inquiries, complaints and criticisms so that the case would not go unpunished, like many others.
• In relation to the 40 years of impunity that prevailed between 1958 and 1998, Rangel gave this summary of the crimes against humanity committed by the bipartisan Adeco-Copeyan dictatorship: “There is no difference between the murder of a political prisoner in a dictatorship or in democracy, between the disappearance of a citizen in a dictatorship or in democracy; but I think that there is a notable difference: it is worse, more despicable, more abject, more immoral and more illegal, the violation of Human Rights within the framework of a democracy that, in the framework of a dictatorship”.
• Jorge Antonio Rodríguez was a native of Carora, edo. Lara was born on February 16, 1946, to a low-income peasant family. Son of Pascual Florido and Eloína Rodríguez.
• He began his political life as a student leader in Democratic Action, from where, due to insurmountable differences, he separated in 1960 to join the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR).
• He graduated as a rural teacher from the Gervasio de Rubio Technical School of Agriculture, in Edo. Tachira. He then moved to Caracas to study Economics at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV). There he was founder and general secretary of the Socialist League (LS). In hiding he was known as “Daniel” or simply “The Master”.
• On December 26, 1962, he married Delcy Gómez, from whose union two of the leaders of the Bolivarian Revolution were born: Jorge and Delcy Eloína Rodríguez Gómez.

Mazo News Team