Published at: 27/05/2026 09:00 PM

(The World and Latest News, May 25, 1972)

• During the offensive unleashed by the government of Rafael Caldera on January 23, other sectors of Catia and the west of the Capital, 13-year-old elementary school student Norberto José Hernández died on the night of May 24, 1972, as a result of shots fired by agents of the Caracas Metropolitan Police (PM).
• The minor was at home when a gunshot lodged in his brain, instantly blinding his life.
• The police shooting, to disperse student riots, took place near the apartment where the murdered young man resided, marked with number C-74 of Block 6 of Las Lomas de Urdaneta.
• Norberto José was the son of María de Hernández and José del Carmen Hernández. His brother, Rafael Hernández, explained how one of the projectiles, fired from a PM patrol, hit the child's head, as he was preparing to drink a drink near the window of his house.
• The parents transferred the unfortunate minor to the Dr. Ricardo Baquero González Peripheral Hospital of Catia, where he was admitted without life.
• That night, police officers, who were traveling in PM patrol units, opened fire on motorcyclists and students, who were protesting the murder of another 12-year-old boy, Luis Enrique Lugo, who a few days earlier was shot by a PM patrol unit.
• These protests intensified when news broke about the death of Norberto Hernández in the sectors adjacent to the block where he was assassinated.
• That same week, the 10-year-old Antonio Ramos, who lived on Los Pinos street in the El Nazareno neighborhood in Pro Patria, was fatally shot in the head during a police raid that kept him dying for several days.
• Regarding these events, the then Minister of Defense, General García Villasmil, declared: “The riots have to be suppressed with greater energy.”
• The PM carried out 300 such operations every month to suppress student demonstrations, carry out raids and imprison anyone suspected of political activities banned by the government.
• In a special report published by El Mundo, dated May 30, 1972, on these and other procedures at odds with justice, it was revealed that the same police officers of the PM should undergo psychiatric treatment and periodic psychological evaluations to alleviate the post-traumatic stress that these operations caused to their mental and physical health. Causal to a high rate of crimes of passion and suicide among the troop.

Mazo News Team