Published at: 05/02/2025 09:00 PM

(El Mundo, January 31, 1975)

• On the night of January 30, 1975, during the first administration of Carlos Andrés Pérez, 18-year-old student Roberto Ildegard Arias was shot by police officers while driving his own car, on San Antonio Street, at the intersection with Casanova Avenue in Sabana Grande.
• Applying, once again, the infamous Flight Law, imposed during the authoritarian regime of Romulo Betancourt, under the doctrine of “Democratic Security” and the order he issued to shoot first and find out later.
• Young Roberto died instantly as a result of a bullet that pierced his right shoulder and chest, destroying his vital organs.
• A group of circumstantial witnesses, who witnessed the massacre, claimed that the young driver did not fire any shots or carry firearms.
• On this occasion, the government had ordered a series of raids following the escape of 28 political prisoners from the San Carlos Barracks, which occurred on January 18 of that same year.
• Police fences were carried out, hundreds of raids were carried out, and dozens of mobile checkpoints were installed in urban and perimeter areas of Caracas, Los Teques, Guarenas, the Valles del Tuy and La Guaira.
• In one of these operations, Arias was killed by agents of the then Judicial Technical Police (PTJ), at a checkpoint from where he was shot for not stopping in time.
• To all these, the official version, issued by the Ministry of Internal Relations, asserted that the vehicle was stolen in Los Teques, that the murdered young man was a “car thief” and that he perished in an alleged armed confrontation.
• Contrary to all the facts and evidence, the car was not stolen, it was his property, it was unarmed, he had no criminal record for vehicle theft, nor did he fire any weapons, as noted in El Mundo.

Mazo News Team