Published at: 14/05/2025 09:00 PM

(Latest News and The Sphere, May 11, 1962)

• 63 years ago, on May 10, 1962, in flagrant violation of the current National Constitution, by presidential decree No. 752, Romulo Betancourt suspended the activities of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) and the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR).
• All the parliamentarians of the PCV and the MIR, elected by universal, direct and secret suffrage, were arrested and stripped of their parliamentary inauguration without a prior search. Some were declared “terrorists or extremists” and included in a list of outlaws.
• By breaking the law, Betancourt, by beating the Constitution, erased two senators and seven deputies of the PCV and some from the left wing of the Democratic Republican Union (URD) from the parliamentary map.
• Then, in the early morning of May 11, 1962, all the offices where the PCV and MIR operated, in the national territory, were robbed by agents of the General Directorate of Police (DIGEPOL).
• Digepol raided premises in Caracas, Los Teques, La Victoria, Maracay, San Juan de los Morros, San Felipe, Cumaná, Puerto Cabello, Valencia and Barquisimeto.
• All material assets, furniture, typewriters, multigraphs, books, archives and informational material were also confiscated.
• During the 521 days, when Rómulo Betancourt kept the Constitutional Guarantees suspended, he established, according to orders given to the police forces: “The streets are not for the people, but for the public force”.

Mazo News Team