Published at: 06/05/2026 09:00 PM

(El Nacional, May 2, 1973 and What to Do, May 4, 1977)

• On May 1, 1973, while participating in the Workers' Day demonstrations, the 22-year-old labor leader, Rafael Antonio Parra, was shot three times in the back.
• After the march, Parra traveled by caravan to El Guarataro, El Observatorio and on January 23, where he was followed to be executed by agents of the Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP).
• The crime scene was El Estanque Street, Barrio Libertad, in El Observatorio, behind block 44 of Sierra Maestra on January 23.
• The yellow press, once again, misreported the truth of what happened by publishing as false news the police report given by the DISIP.
• However, the facts, always contradictory, proved quite the opposite. Forensic expertise and eyewitness testimony revealed the truth of the murder committed by State security agents.
• The truth is that Rafael Parra was another victim of the “pacification policy” applied during the administration of President Rafael Caldera (1969-1974). In that five-year period, many victims were added to the long list of those killed, tortured and disappeared in the 1960s.
• Among some of the “pacified” of the social-Christian government are:
  1. Ramón A. Colón, 27, was killed in his hometown, Aragua de Barcelona, by a commission from the hunting corps patrolling in a jeep.
  2. Aurelio Trocett Calma, 60, was arrested by the Armed Forces Intelligence Service (SIFA) at his brother's house in Oonto, edo. Anzoategui. Identified as a collaborator of the guerrillas by Miguel Antonio Portillo, he was taken to his Hato Algarróbenos and tortured in the presence of his family and neighbors. After being executed, the government reported that it “managed to escape from a Theater of Operations (TO)”. Date of his death: March 22, 1973.
  3. José Viloria Gutiérrez was killed by police in Valera, edo. Trujillo, when he was demonstrating calling for the release of the imprisoned students.
  4. Ángel María Castillo “Pancho Alegría”, a native of Barinas, a peasant leader captured by the DISIP in Caracas, after being betrayed by the traitor Álvaro Jiménez Silva. He was tortured and murdered on June 18, 1973.
  5. Esladia Margarita Vásquez Rojas, on June 28, 1973, was machine-gunned inside her house by DISIP agents, including whistleblowers Homero Sánchez Araujo (Horacio) and César Debona Noguera (Vladimir). Vásquez Rojas died pregnant.
  6. Noel Rodríguez was arrested in Caracas on June 29, 1973, by a DISIP commission in which Manuel Antonio Tirado participated.
  7. Miriam Barreto Merchán, 18, was arrested by the Army in Bejucal de Jusepín, edo. Monagas, transferred to Potrerito, where she was tortured and murdered on January 5, 1974.

Mazo News Team