Published at: 29/04/2026 08:44 PM

(Latest News, April 27, 1965)

• On April 26, 1965, in the debate diary of the Senate of the National Congress, the truth of what happened to the rural and peasant teacher Benjamín Montilla, who until now disappeared by the government of Raúl Leoni, was established.
• His parents, Lisimaco Montilla and Zenadia de Montilla, after being arrested by officers of the Theater of Operations No. 3 (TO3), went one by one to all the police centers to get a single answer: “Your son died in an ambush and it is not possible to know where he was buried in the middle of the mountain.”
• Two days earlier, educator Benjamín Montilla was arrested at his house in front of all his relatives by a squad from the National Intelligence Service (SIFA) and the General Directorate of Police (DIGEPOL) in the town of Chabasquén, edo. Portuguese, accused of collaborating with the guerrillas.
• Later, the agents of those security forces took him to the La Boca hamlet, where he was shot and disappeared.
• Despite his social-Christian affiliation, he was branded as a “suspect” and joined the long list of forced disappearances executed by the governments of the Fourth Republic.
• That same day, peasants Juan Venegas, Germán Pargas, Francisco Fernández and Pablo Montilla were arrested in the neighboring village of Santa Rosa de Lima. The latter was killed on the spot, while his wife was being raped. Juan Venegas died as a result of the beating and torture to which he was subjected. The others managed to flee to the mountain.
• Also, that week, the peasant Atilio López Cedeño was arrested and shot in the rural settlement of Quebrada de Oro, Duaca, edo. Lara.
• The Theater of Operations No. 3, located in El Tocuyo, edo. In that month of April 1965, Lara, and her political police commandos DIGEPOL and SIFA, intensified their actions against the civilian population, leading to numerous raids and arrests, characterized by the inhuman atrocities committed.
• In the center of the city of El Tocuyo, the Urica anti-guerrilla command was installed, and within the Municipal Market, the Corpahuaico Barracks operated, where military personnel, SIFA, DIGEPOL and a Military Court operated together to give evidence of legality to extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances.
• It should be noted that the TO3 was personally inaugurated by Rómulo Betancourt in 1962, and its range of action was extended by Raúl Leoni to the states of Lara, Portuguesa and Barinas, and was active until 1972. In ten years, he left hundreds of peasants shot and disappeared, and their conucos and hamlets were razed to the ground.
• These complaints, for violation of the Right to Life enshrined in the National Constitution of 1961, were evidenced before the Chamber of Deputies of the National Congress by the parliamentarian of the Copei Christian Social Party, Oscar Picón Giacopini.

Mazo News Team