Published at: 28/01/2026 09:00 PM

(EL NACIONAL and LATEST NEWS, January 24 and 25, 1962)

• In Caracas, on January 24, 1962, during the celebration of the overthrow of the dictatorship of General Marcos Pérez Jiménez, the government of Rómulo Betancourt ordered military cordon and mass raids in the areas of Lomas de Urdaneta, Lídice and on January 23.
• The day before, Betancourt ruled that the peaceful demonstrations held in the popular areas of western Caracas, in solidarity with the National Transportation Strike, were “insurrectional and subversive in nature.”
• Nothing could be further from the truth, since none of the many dead and injured were armed. All the firepower came from the government forces that carried out the military encirclement.
• Despite the non-violent nature of the demonstrations, Betancourt did not hesitate to unleash a fierce repression that left 28 dead, 104 injured and more than 1,000 arrested in Caracas.
• With the Vagos and Maliantes Act in force, the government took the opportunity to send hundreds of demonstrators to the Mobile Colonies of El Dorado, better known as “El Hampoducto”
• Three days earlier, on January 19 in San Cristóbal, edo. Táchira, the Transport Strike had broken out, where members of the National Guard (G.N.) left a child, a woman and a man shot dead, dozens injured and hundreds arrested.
• The unrest of this massacre was the spark that ignited protests across the country, spreading to Caracas with the general transportation strike.
• In Lomas de Urdaneta, on January 23 and Lídice, victims of government shrapnel fell:
  • Esther Maria Flores.
  • Emilio Dos Santos.
  • Pilar Ponce Blanco.
  • Santiago Jose Figueroa.
  • Felipe Chaparro.
  • Rafael Hurtado.
  • Alfredo Rafael Tirado.
  • Omar Sirit Rodriguez.
  • Francisco Osorio Mogollon.
  • Mercedes Carlota Ochoa.
  • Ana Lourdes Pacheco.
  • Anibal Jose Jimenez.
  • Simon Hortaja.
  • Isaac Luigi.
  • Castor Carballo.
  • Just Camacho.
  • Jose Ortiz.
  • Simon Rafael Huartaja.
  • Pablo Guillermo Rodriguez.
  • Jose Gustavo Quiroz.
  • King Miguel Arvieca.
  • Rafael Carmona.
• In La Pastora, Isaac Rafael Velásquez Luy was shot dead by National Guard agents in the occipital region.
• Early in the morning, in Lídice, Martín Palacios, 15, was shot dead when he was on the roof of block 57.
• Late at night, Elías David la Rosa, 18, was shot dead by police officers while trying to board a bus on the Santa Teresa-El Cementerio route.
• Another of the victims, in Caracas, was the young 5th year high school student, Ramón Augusto Guevara Solórzano, who was shot by officers of the General Directorate of Police (DIGEPOL) near Nuevo Circo.
• During 10 days of peaceful protests and union demonstrations across Venezuela, the government refused to understand that:
  • The transport workers justly considered that the government's measures were harmful to their interests, since they raised the cost of living considerably, after the imposition of a law that was clearly inapplicable to the sector.
  • That the abuses by insurance companies were contrary to the spirit of the legislator who requested the deferral of the application of the Civil Liability Insurance Act.
  • That the government, protecting the interests of insurance companies, preferred to turn its weapons against the demonstrators, ignoring the just demands of drivers and transport users.
  • All of which turned, once again, the celebration of the anniversary week of January 23 into the occasion of another bloody act perpetrated by the Betancourt government.

Mazo News Team