Published at: 29/10/2025 09:00 PM

“Operation Anguilla III”

(Latest News, November 3-5, 1988; Police Chronicle, November 9, 1989 and El Nacional, February 26, 1989)

• On October 29, 1988, 14 fishermen were massacred, by police and military officials, in Caño La Colorada, town of El Amparo, municipality of Páez del Edo. Apure, during the administration of Jaime Lusinchi.
• Of the 16 fishermen ambushed by the murderous government shrapnel fire, only two managed to survive: Willmer Gregorio Pinilla and José Augusto Arias. They told the truth of what happened and dismantled the false versions that the killers manufactured.
• The survivors of the El Amparo Massacre recounted how it was: “We threw ourselves into the river to save ourselves from bullets. Then we overcome a large number of dangers in the difficult terrain of Arauca.”
• “Those who were left alive were shot and later dressed in military uniforms, with the peculiarity that the clothing did not have bullet perforations, while the bodies looked like a strainer.”
• Finally, they had to avoid the tracking of helicopters and military planes in order to be able to tell the bloody events that outraged the entire country.
• This massacre was coordinated by the National Chief of Operations of the Intelligence and Prevention Directorate (DISIP), Henry López Sisco.
• The special assassination unit, called José Antonio Páez Specific Command (CEJAP), was created by Jaime Lusinchi, according to Official Gazette No. 1,804 of November 4, 1987, and was acting under his direct orders.
• The humble fishermen who were victims of this monstrous crime were:
• José Indalecio Guerrero
• José Emeterio Vivas
• José Ramón Puertas Garcia
• Pedro Indalecio Mosqueda
• Rafael Magín
• Paúl Moreno
• Carlos Antonio Eregua
• Luis Alfredo Berríos
• José Mariano Torrealba
• José Gregorio Torrealba
• José Rigoberto Araujo
• Arín Obadias Maldonado
• Moisés Antonio Blanco
• Julio Pastor Ceballos
• Justo Pastor Moncada
• Among the main intellectual and material authors of the so-called “Anguilla III” operation are:
• General Humberto Camejo Arias
• Col. Enrique Vivas Quintero
• Commissioner and National Chief of Operations Henry López
• These same death operators later committed two massacres, that of El Vallado and Los Totumitos, in the state of Táchira.
• Regarding these adventures and massacres, the deputy for Cause R (CR), Carlos Azpúrua, denounced to the House of Internal Policy Committee and the national press, the atrocities committed in the edo. Táchira, by CEJAP agents: Henry López Sisco, Álvaro Rottondaro and Ricardo Koesling.
• The latter, taking advantage of the suspension of constitutional guarantees due to the events of El Caracazo, went on a hunt to assassinate the parliamentarian Azpurua, the survivors of the massacre of El Amparo, El Vallado and Los Totumitos.
• Fortunately, both Deputy Azpurua and the survivors of the above-mentioned massacres were promptly informed of this extermination operation against all the complainants, survivors and any trace of proof of their crimes, thus saving themselves from the CEJAP murderers.

Mazo News Team