Published at: 23/04/2025 08:00 PM

(EL NACIONAL and Latest News, April 18, 1968)

• On April 17, 1968, the student Cornelio Alvarado Herrera died as a result of the torture inflicted on him in the cells of the General Directorate of Police (Digepol) in Maracay, edo. Aragua.
• It was the deputy for the Revolutionary Party for Nationalist Integration (PRIN), José Vicente Rangel, who, once again, denounced and detailed another of the hundreds of crimes committed by the Government of Raúl Leoni, before the Chamber of Deputies of the National Congress.
• Nikita, as he was nicknamed, was initially arrested on March 17, 1968, in a sector of Bella Vista near San Martín Avenue where his residence was located. He was released and arrested again on April 11. Days later, Digepol agents reported that he had died of a heart attack in the cells of Maracay.
• On the same day of his arrest, his sister Mercedes' apartment in Caricuao was raided.
• A few days later, the same police officers returned to inform him that his brother had died a natural death.
• During the complaint filed by Rangel, he stated that since the headquarters of this police agency, 50 meters from the Miraflores Palace, it was unlikely that President Leoni was not aware of the torture and humiliation inflicted on the hundreds of students and left-wing leaders arrested.
• In that unicameral session, Deputy Rangel demonstrated with evidence how, thanks to the repression unleashed by President Leoni, more than 300 people disappeared, some of them shot.
• He also pointed out the existence of a team of tormentors who had killed several innocent people, identified as alleged guerrilla fighters on whom they vented shameful anger. At the same time, many women and men were arrested without a court order.
• The revolutionary fighter, Lino Martínez, stated that while he was imprisoned, next to the cell where Nikita was, he was able to hear the torture to which he was subjected and testified that his death resulted from them.

Mazo News Team