Published at: 02/07/2025 09:00 PM

THIS IS HOW JULY 5 WAS CELEBRATED IN THE GOVERNMENT OF RAÚL LEONI

(EL NACIONAL and LATEST NEWS, July 6, 1967)

• 58 years ago, during the administration of Raúl Leoni, agents of the General Directorate of Police (DIGEPOL) interrupted the solemn session of Independence Day to raid the headquarters of the Caracas Municipal Council and arrest the labor leader Luis Antonio León, Commander Martín.
• At that time, the orderly speaker was Domingo Alberto Rangel, whose speech was abruptly interrupted by the agents to arrest Luis León, who was working as a doorman for that municipality.
• The sacred enclosure of the room, where the Act of Independence was originally signed on July 5, 1811, was raided by DIGEPOL thugs, without a court order authorizing them to do so, under the pretext that the detainee was a member of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV).
• The fact was described by the members of that building chamber as a flagrant violation and an outrage of the City Council compound.
• To prevent the arbitrary arrest and kidnapping of Luis León, the president of the chamber, Eduardo Tamayo Gascue, strongly protested the presence of Digepol officials.
• The Digepoles ignored the protests carried out by the councilors who were meeting to commemorate this national date.
• The arrest, consummated by brute police force, was doubly serious, in which the majesty of the Republic was injured and the communist leader Luis Antonio León was arrested, to disappear forever, whose whereabouts are unknown until today.
• It is only known that Commander Martín was taken to the Theater of Operations No. 5 in Yumare, edo. Yaracuy, an anti-guerrilla extermination camp where his wife and family members went without getting any answers other than the usual evasions: “yesterday he was released”, “he escaped from here”, “we don't know anything”, “it seems that he left with another woman”.
• Thus, León Ruíz went on to add to the statistics of the more than 11,000 victims of people murdered and disappeared, between 1959-1998, by the governments of Democratic Action and Copei.
• Luis León was a member of the Central Council of Communist Youth of Venezuela and actively participated in the fight against the dictatorship of General Marcos Pérez Jiménez.

Mazo News Team