Published at: 16/07/2025 09:00 PM

The son of trade unionist Vásquez Fermín was hanged in El Hatillo

(CLARIN, July 17, 1962 and July 1963)

• On Tuesday, July 14, 1962, José Antonio Vásquez La Torre, 20, a second-year law student at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), was arrested in the CADA car market in Las Mercedes and taken to the cells of the Prefecture of El Hatillo.
• Three days later, he died at that police headquarters because of the severe torture to which he was subjected. His body was placed inside a sack, cooked at the ends and so they handed it over to his relatives, who were told that he had hanged himself.
• José Antonio Vásquez La Torre, a member of the Youth of the Communist Party of Venezuela (JPCV), died while being subjected to intense interrogation in connection with an investigation that took place regarding the death of a police officer.
• During the government of Rómulo Betancourt, the cells of the Prefectures of Police and Civil Headquarters were also used as interrogation rooms to obtain forced confessions.
• José Antonio was the son of professor, jurist and communist leader Rafael Vásquez Fermín. This trade unionist left his mark on the development of the primary education programs that were introduced to revolutionize the education system during the administration of General Isaías Medina Angarita.
• On that same date, in the Petare Prefecture, the body of citizen Esteban Padilla Pérez was found inside a dungeon.
• Case reported and investigated by the then student leader Jorge Rodríguez F. This victim had polyfractures, as well as a ruptured liver and heart.
• On July 21, 1972, five days after the hanging of José Antonino Vásquez La Torre and the beating that ended the life of Esteban Padilla Pérez. The Minister of Internal Relations, Carlos Andrés Pérez, when questioned about this and other similar cases, said: “When a declaration is necessary, those in charge of the investigation apply force to obtain it.”

Mazo News Team