Published at: 29/04/2026 08:44 PM

(Clarín, April 29, 1963)

• On April 22, 1963, 22-year-old José Gregorio Pinto was shot while returning home in the El Polvorín neighborhood of Caracas, and was intercepted by plain-clothed police carrying machine guns, who forced him to stand with his back against a wall with his arms raised. There, on the spot, they shot him down.
• The neighbors present testified that the agents sat in a car for several hours waiting for the arrival of José Gregorio Pinto.
• While waiting, they showed their machine guns through the windows of the vehicle and threatened neighbors to leave the place. The car had official license plates.
• A brother-in-law of the young man who was shot prevented technical police officers from kidnapping the body, a courageous attitude that almost cost him his life.
• This political crime, which took the life of José Gregorio Pinto, left his wife, Cruz Ibarra de Pinto, a widow with four minor children orphaned.
• At the time of his Christian burial, the officers of the General Directorate of Police (DIGEPOL) were present at the cemetery and, in a threatening way, pointed their machine guns at the relatives and relatives present there.
• Days before, José Gregorio, in his capacity as a member of the URD and messenger of the Ministry of Internal Relations, had been proposed to join the ranks of Democratic Action (AD) so that in turn he would become part of the DIGEPOL civil service, to which he categorically refused.
• By then, Carlos Andrés Pérez was Minister of Internal Relations, during the last months of the presidency of Rómulo Betancourt.

Mazo News Team