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

(El Nacional and Latest News, May 5, 1962)

The Carupanazo was an uprising carried out by young civilians and soldiers from the Navy and the National Guard, including members of the Marine Infantry Battalion No. 3 and Detachment No. 77 under the command of the Corvette Captain, Jesús Teodoro Molina Villegas, and the Mayor, Pedro Vegas Castejón, who led, together with the communist leader Simón Sáez Mérida, this insurrection against the authoritarian and criminal regime of Rómulo Betancourt.

• The uprisings numbered around 350 soldiers and a hundred rebel civilians, occupying the streets and buildings of the city, as well as the airport and the radio station Radio Carúpano, from where they broadcast the manifesto that started the uprising.
• The officers and civilians acted on behalf of the Democratic Recovery Movement, and in their radio communiqué they said: “Because of the betrayal of the glorious 23rd of January*, the installation of a regime of terror by* Betancourt and his cabal, the repeated suspension of constitutional guarantees, and the farce of Agrarian Reform*, we seek the* Democratic Restoration and the reconstruction of the country”.

The statement also noted: “The Government of Rómulo Betancourt has placed itself on the sidelines of principles and its unconditional minorities, despite the fact that they were the flag of the popular movement on January 23, 1958, and despite the fact that those principles were sworn in by the President*. These principles have been trampled upon, the democratic regime has been usurped and the country's problems have been aggravated by this* Government in the most irresponsible way, implementing irritating advantage and an increasingly aggressive and brutal repression against the people. We have risen up against these deviations and those vices, because we know that there will be no constitutional continuity as long as this sectarian and ineffective regime, which is also brutal, persists, and that is why we believe that with Rómulo Betancourt and his current Cabinet there is no possibility of peace or progress”.

• Manifests were broadcast on all radio stations, taken over by the insurgents, in the name of “Democratic Recovery”, calling on the civilian population to join the movement.
• The rebellion succeeded in dominating Carúpano, Rio Caribe and San José de Areocuar.
• The government, in response, sent 4,000 soldiers to the area. The uprisings were besieged by air, land and sea; and not receiving the expected support from the eastern region and the rest of the country, they had no choice but to surrender.

Mazo News Team