Published at: 03/12/2025 09:00 PM
(Latest News and El Nacional, November 29, 1960)
Faced with the student demonstrations that took place in Caracas on November 28, 1960, called in solidarity with the strike of the workers of the telephone company CANTV, President Rómulo Betancourt suspended the Constitutional Guarantees and ordered the armed wing of the government: “Shoot at looters and arsonists who resist”.
The government measure, strictly enacted against underage students, the civilian population and workers who went out to demonstrate peacefully in the street, resulted in the death of:
Wilfredo José Carrillo , a 13-year-old boy, who died as a result of a shot fired by a Petare Police officer, outside his jurisdiction, on a street in Barrio Marín, in San Agustín.
Guillermina Echenique Padilla, 16, was struck in the abdomen by a Federal District Police officer. The incident occurred in Los Flores de Catia.
According to the report of the Petare Police Chief, they were killed by the action of this body:
Alberto Guía
Rosario Mujica
Santos Innocente Belisario
There was an unidentified deceased
That night, Dr. Natalia Chinaglia Silva was hit by a rifle shot. The victim was traveling in a car in the vicinity of El Valle when an Army officer shot at the vehicle without listening to the loud voice.
On the corner of Cruz Verde, near the Andrés Bello High School, the 16-year-old student Antonio José Mogollón was killed by a shot fired by National Guard (GN) agents.
All of this happened when the newly elected president had not yet completed a year in power. All parties supported his administration, including the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) and no pronouncement or insurrection had broken out against him.
A few months later, on February 13, 1961, on the occasion of his first year in office, during a speech given in El Silencio, with the tired voice that characterized him, he ordered all State Security forces: “Shoot first... find out later”.
Mazo News Team