Published at: 16/07/2025 09:00 PM

(EL NACIONAL, July 17, 1969 and Memories of the Insurgency, July 11, 2025)

• Francisco Ramón Prada Barazarte “Commander Arauca” and Elected Sibada “Commander Magoya” were reported by the government of Rafael Caldera as dead, according to an official report published in El Nacional on July 17, 1969.
• The photo showed both of them in the mountains, as part of a group of guerrilla fighters, killed in combat, or killed by the Army, who were designated to manufacture a series of lies, montages and false communication positives, bringing their physical disappearance to public opinion.
• However, they were able to overcome the tenacious government hunt to exterminate them, extending their existence for four more decades.
• Today we pay tribute to the life journey of the immortal guerrilla fighter, Commander Arauca, who died on July 11, 2014:
  • Francisco R. Prada Barazarte was born in 1934 in Escuque, Edo. Trujillo. He studied anthropology at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) and was a student committed to social struggle.
  • Prada Barazarte excelled as Director of the Salvador Valero Popular Art Museum of the Universidad de los Andes (ULA) and as a promoter of the Salvador Valero Biennial, together with his wife, also an anthropologist, Laura Pérez Carmona.
  • He was, without a doubt, one of the most prominent political leaders of the Venezuelan guerrilla movement.
  • His participation was relevant in the preparations for the armed struggle in Venezuela, from the very beginning, when he led the rear of the José A. Páez de Portuguesa Guerrilla Front.
  • Later, he created and founded the Western Plains Guerrilla Front, which operated in Barinas, Apure and Portuguesa.
  • He was a co-founder of the Venezuelan Revolution Party (PRV) and a member of the National Directorate of the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN).
  • He served as Political Commissioner of the National Liberation Front (FLN) and the Armed Forces for National Liberation (FALN), being a delegate to the conferences of the Latin American Solidarity Organization (OLAS) in Cuba.
  • He served missions in Algeria, France, England, China, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Mexico and Guatemala.
  • In 1973, he was arrested and detained in the San Carlos Barracks in Caracas, where he participated in the construction of the tunnel together with other members of the PRV and Red Flag (BR), with whom they were released on January 18, 1975.
  • He participated in the creation and utopian conceptual proposal of the PRV-FALN-ruptura-Tercer Camino.
  • Co-founder of the Third Way Movement, he was always a militant of universal utopia and the historic leader of a subversive process in continuous combustion and search for the true and definitive revolution.
  • Today, with militant pride, we honor the memory of the legendary Commander Arauca, who assumed fundamental roles, at a time when armed struggle represented the only option for political dissent in Venezuela.
  • Francisco Ramón Prada Barazarte, an example of infinite rebellion for the causes of the poor and the excluded. Honor and Glory to Flaco Prada!

Mazo News Team