Published at: 07/05/2025 09:00 PM

(CLARÍN and EL NACIONAL, MAY 5, 1962)

• 63 years ago, on the occasion of May 1st, the students of the Liceo Miguel José Sanz de Maturín paid homage to the working class in the Plaza de Los Estudiantes. At the same time, in the neighboring house of Democratic Action (AD), there were big eats and drinks to celebrate. However, adept workers deserted to join the student meeting.
• The governor of the state of Monagas, Armando Sánchez Bueno, agreed with the adeco leader, Luis Alfaro Ucero and the Copeyan Iván Vergara to “give a lesson to the students, since they had sabotaged the commemoration.”
• The AD lobbyists were ordered to beat up the “hot heads” of the Sanz Lyceum.
• In those days, the armed gangs of AD kept the population in a permanent state of anxiety, through the terror exercised by Luis Alfaro Ucero, his brother Antonio and the Social Christian Iván Salomón Vergara. To get excited, they, meeting in the District House of Ad-Maturín, had a previous day of drinking alcohol and drunkenness.
• On the day they executed the massacre, May 4th, students demonstrated around the school campus in solidarity with the El Carupanazo uprising, which left 54 dead and 400 arrested.
• That morning, when they arrived at the high school, they found the principal writing on the blackboards, the announcement of the suspension of classes by order of the governor.
• Then, from the neighboring AD headquarters, Alfaro Ucero came out at the head of a band of drunk lobbyists, shouting: “I lead with them who are our enemies.” He fired several shots into the air as a sign of attack and his henchmen began the assault, shooting and beating the students.
• Under the impact of bullets, Alberto César Millán Marcano (18), who was near a refrigerator, was struck dead while helping a pregnant teacher who was shot and wounded by the assailants.
• José Rafael Guerra Silva was shot twice by an M30 rifle and a brutal beating. The adecos, to top it off, took an 8-kilo Olympic iron shooting ball to crush his face.
• Later, the criminal hosts of Democratic Action and Copei took out a group of students to shoot them. They placed 15 boys and 2 girls against a wall at the entrance of the building. Each lobbyist, rifle in hand, was assigned a student to shoot.
• Then, in due course, a Lieutenant and a Technical Sergeant of the National Guard intervened and the students were taken as detainees and then released.
• Lieutenant Héctor Carvajal and Technical Sergeant Gustavo Perdomo, aware of the abominable atrocity that was going to be committed, saved their lives.

Mazo News Team