Published at: 17/09/2025 09:00 PM

(EL NACIONAL and CLARÍN, SEPTEMBER 17, 1962)

• On September 16, 1962, the anniversary of the founding of the Communist Youth of Venezuela (JCV), the 22-year-old communist leader Jesús Manuel Osuna was assassinated by agents of the General Directorate of Police (DIGEPOL) as he was leaving a film function.
• That day, at midnight, Osuna, unprepared, was approached by Digepoles who shot him in the head.
• His body was lying near Puente República, on the East-2 corner of the El Conde housing estate.
• Later it became known that Jesús Osuna was assassinated by a DIGEPOL commission, commanded by the then director of that repressive body Atahualpa Montes.
• Eyewitnesses stated that the killers tried to place a revolver in the body's left hand as an alibi to simulate suicide.
• Jesús Osuna, a university student, was constantly monitored by DIGEPOL on charges of being a liaison with the guerrillas and an active member of a revolutionary cell that operated at the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB), where he was studying his second year of engineering.

THE CONTEXT:

• In 1962, in less than five years, Romulo Betancourt's shrapnel was used against members of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV), especially youth militants. His main executory left a trail of more than 10,000 homes raided, 900 dead and 1,500 political prisoners.
• To this end, Betancourt inaugurated El Hampoducto, an airlift to the Guiana jungles to isolate and kill those who are politically persecuted or to leave them missing. This was one of his first works of his government.
• On September 16, the following youth cadres of the JCV were also shot by DIGEPOL:
  • Omar Ramones Prieto, who was shot and shot to death in the Plaza Capuchinos on Avenida San Martín, Caracas, during a student demonstration. He was a prominent leader, who was imprisoned eight times for his revolutionary convictions before being assassinated. He left a widow and a son.
  • José Manuel Rojas Figueroa was shot by the Municipal Police in Plaza Catia.
  • Manuel Cachutt was strafed by state police officers in Valle de La Pascua, edo. Guárico.

Mazo News Team