Published at: 11/12/2024 09:00 PM

(WHAT'S HAPPENING IN Venezuela, December 7, 1965 + EL NACIONAL, December 13, 1965)

• The arrest and death of Manuel Antonio Chirinos, 20 years old, holder of identity card No. v.-3,066,470, who was taken prisoner as an alleged guerrilla fighter under the jurisdiction of the General Directorate of Police (DIGEPOL), was first denounced by EL NACIONAL in its edition of 1-12-65 and, later, by the deputy Manuel F. Sierra de Vanguardia Popular Nacionalista before the Legislative Assembly of Falcón State.
• Chirinos was arrested on November 11, 1965, at 9:00am, in the immediate vicinity of Plaza Bolívar, intersection with Ampies and Garcés Street in the city of Coro, when his perpetrators presumed that he was preparing to carry out a terrorist action.
• To all these, on November 30, the Ministry of Defense issued a statement in which it admitted that “when occupying one of the camps located near the Agua Larga hamlet (...) the bodies of Manuel Antonio Chirinos, alias Jaime; Justiniano Aguilar, alias Dumbo and Martín González, were found.
• During the investigation carried out by the Falconian Legislative Assembly, their arrest and death came to light, under the same circumstances as those of Justiniano Aguilar and Martín González, with sufficient evidence to certify that all three were handed over alive by Digepol agents to the Cabure Anti-Guerrilla Command (Theater of Operations number 1 - TO1).
• Thanks to the complaint published in EL NACIONAL, on December 1, 1965, and the request for an investigation before the Legislative Assembly, it became known about the arbitrary arrest and subsequent murder of these three citizens.
• Otherwise, what happened would have been lost in the midst of official communications and the subsequent bureaucratic and administrative obstacles interposed to prevent its public knowledge.
• What is not known, to date, is how the three bodies walked from the headquarters of DIGEPOL, in Coro, to the Agua Larga hamlet, passing first through the TO de Cabure.
• 1965 was a year in which Venezuela lived under the terror imposed by the Government of Raúl Leoni. Among the list of detainees alive and eventually found dead or missing forever are:
  • In Maracaibo, on August 22, 1965, Carlos Guillén Rodríguez and the 13-year-old Félix Linares disappeared.
  • On May 15, 1965, the brothers José Amador Linares and Remigio Antonio Linares were arrested and disappeared in the Portuguese state.
  • On August 17, 1965, Mrs. Rosa Rosas de Andarcia reported the arrest and disappearance of her son José Andarcia López and a friend of his, José Inocencio González, by Digepol officers.
  • On October 25, 1965, Luis Rafael Tineo Gamboa reported that his brother, Luis Beltrán Tineo Gamboa, was arrested in the Ipure hamlet of Maturín, taken to Piedra de Moler mountain, where he was forced to dig his own grave.
  • On September 9, 1965, literacy teacher, actor and broadcaster César Burguillos and union leader and social fighter Donato Carmona were shot. Without leaving any traces to the present.
  • The same case of torture and disappearance is that of Roger Zapata and Octavio Romero, both arrested in Carúpano, on August 15, 1965. To date, his whereabouts are unknown.

Mazo News Team