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

(Panorama, December 6, 1964)

• Rafael Ignacio Arias Piedra, a 14-year-old student at the Barquisimeto Industrial Technical School (ETI), was shot in the head by a Digepol agent, while peaceful demonstrations were taking place over the death of student Pedro Pablo Romero in front of the National Pantheon.
• Three students were shot and wounded by the bloodthirsty action of this joyous government trigger.
• It all happened when a commission from the General Directorate of Police (Digepol) tried to dissolve a peaceful demonstration called by students from the Mario Briceño Irgaorry, Rafael Villavicencio and the ETI high schools, who demonstrated through the main streets of Barquisimeto.
• Then three Digepol jeeps appeared, from which nine agents got out, with machine guns in hand, who tried to block the way for the demonstrators, at the height of Vargas Avenue and Venezuela Avenue, throwing tear gas bombs.
• In an exchange of words between the leaders of the student demonstration and the Digepoles, an agent activated his regulation weapon, killing the student on the spot and injuring three others.
• This happened 60 years ago, during the Government of Raúl Leoni, when following the custom of his predecessor in office, he dedicated himself to exterminating an entire generation of young people and political leaders who took to the streets to protest against the incessant bombings and murders that the government was carrying out in the states of Lara, Portuguesa, Falcón and Trujillo. Areas in which, in addition to bombing, more than 200 innocent peasants were shot.

Mazo News Team