PROTESTS BETANCOURT'S REPRESSIVE MEASURES
The London Committee of the National Liberation Front [FLY] of | Venezuela has issued a denunciation of the unconstitutional arrest of éight members of parliament and the ‘house arrest of fifteen others in violation of the constitution of Venezuela. The committee holds that Betancourt committed these illegal acts as part of the preparations for the "biggest electoral fraud in Venezuelan history.®
The committee likewise protested the violation of the. freedom of the press involved in the suspension of El Venezolano and Clarin and the. destruction of their presses by Betancourt's political police.
El Venezolano, an independent publication, is edited by Dr. Maza Zabala, a prominent Venezuelan economist. Clarin is edited by Luis Miquelena, a leader of the liberal opposition in -parliament.
The arrests followed an incident which the FLN brands as a frame-up. According to the government, a holiday train was held up by members of the Armed Forces of National Liberation [FALN] who robbed the passengers of ‘pocketbooks and jewels. When the National Guard suddenly arrived, five guardsmen were killed and two boys and three women were wounded.
The FLN denies that this action was carried out by members of the FALN. “On the contrary we assert that this has been another act of provocation of the Venezuelan | government. "t
Two similar cases are cited. On Septenber 50, 1962, the government charged that extremists fired from the roof of the. Concepeién Palacios Maternity Hospital at a barracks in Caracas, killing two civilians who happened to be passing by. The troops, suspiciously enough, suffered no casualties and took no prisoners. The frame-up became clear when Dr. - Dominguez Sisco, director of the hospital made a public statement dis-
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i 7) claiming that anybody had fired from the hospital at the barracks.
"Nevertheless the government used this incident to suspend constitutional guarantees and to imprison members of the political opposition."
At the beginning of 1963 the government claimed that while President Betancourt was on the way to visit Monsenor Bernal in Ciudad Bélivar, two terrorists plotting to kill the president and his companions with bombs were discovered in the bishopric. Ina public speech following this, Betancourt ordered the arrest of all extremists. Some 300 were eventually arrested,
Monsenhor Bernal made a public statement declaring that he did not see any terrorists or bombs in the building and did not believe that any were present. .
The exposure of this frame-up provoked national indignation, i states the FLN, “even in the right wing press. (El Universal) which noted that the government had tried to exploit the religious sentiments of the people for repressive purposes,"
The FLN points out that the alleged train robbery is out of character for the FALN which engages in only four types of action:
(1) Attempts to gain publicity as, for instance when some French paintings were boldly taken from an art. exhibit.
(2) Assaults on barracks, police stations or other armed centers to acquire arms.
(3) Attacks on installations of companies that support the regime.
(4) Organization of relief efforts for the city's poor such as the forcible requisitioning of trucks carrying meat, vegetables and other food stuffs for free distribution in the slums,
Whenever and wherever the FALN carries out such actions it always | proclaims its responsibility. on ; Pa
As for the reasons for the government resorting to such frame-ups, the FLN adduces the following:
"First we must point to the pressure which right-wing elements in the Venezuelan army have exerted on President Betancourt which European newspapers, including the [London] Times, have noted. This is in keeping with the trend in Latin America to replace the representative democracies by military dictatorships such as have occurred in the last two weeks in the Dominican Republic and Honduras.
this trend of Latin-American politics started with the overthrow of President Frondizi of Argentina just at the moment when he had lost the = provincial elections to the opposition. Similarly, there has been the . overthrow of Ydigoras Fuentes on the eve of the Guatemalan elections and now at this very moment the overthrow of President Villeda Morales in Honduras just before the elections, in addition to the overthrow of Presi-. dent Prado. in Peru, when the elections had just taken place, with a result wnich the military were not quite in favor of,
"Fp is fairly obvious that President Betancourt has given way to. further military pressure so as to avoid being overthrown, even though we hold he has been a willing tool in their hands, because in any free and fair elections the opposition parties are likely to win.
"The opposition parties and candidates have taken a very clear position with regard to the sequel of events following the train incident.
'mx-President Larrazabal, who is a candidate in the forthcoming -elections has been associated with the statement of the People's Democratic. Front to the effect that if the two opposition parties which have now been illegalized are not rehabilitated, then it is likely that they will not participate in the elections.
tURD (liberal), the biggest opposition party, has always opposed this political persecution and through Dr. Ignacio Luis Arcaya, ex-foreign minister of the present government and president of the chamber of. deputies, strongly protested against the arrests and pointed to the electoral fraud in preparation.
"AD-ARS, a splinter group of President Betancourt's own party, has’ officially demanded the legalization of the opposition parties now proscribed and have indicated that if this is not done they will issue an. appeal to the other opposition parties not to take part in the Forthooming elections because of the fraudulent preparations now going on.
"Finally, the London Committee of the National Liberation Front on the 26th of February of this year in -the House of Commons had warned the British public of the preparation of an electoral fraud in Venezuela. -We simply repeat this warning.
"Once more the government has shown that it is both unwilling and incapable of bringing peace to the country and after plunging it into economic chaos its legacy now seems to be to pave the way for a new military dictatorship,"
"PAJARITO" MORALES LOSES HIS SHIRT
In his speech last July 26, commemorating the tenth anniversary of the attack on the Moncada Barracks, Fidel Castro pointed to the growing strength of the Cuban Revolution in face of all the predictions that it would soon collapse. To illustrate his point, he told the following story:
‘and there is no lack of things to make you laugh, such as the case of a gentleman also known as !President! but who goes more commonly by the name of 'Pajarito! Morales -- and donit think that I invented that adjective ['Pajarito,' a small bird, has an uncomplimentary connotation. ] because that's the name of this gentleman,. said to be the president of Honduras. This gentleman had the brilliant idea of making a bet with Marshal Montgomery last year that the Cuban Revolutionary Government would not last until 1963. And Marshal Montgomery, who is very nice and in favor . of peace, won the bet naturally.
"But it seems that this gentleman did not learn his lesson. He bet again that the Revolution would not last until 1964, What a pity that he
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doesntt want to bet with us! What a pity there aren't more of these bettors because we could convert these bets into a magnificent source of foreign exchange!"
This story got a big laugh out of the immense crowd. The final kicker did not come, however, until later. On October 3 Honduran army chiefs pulled a coup d'état on the liberal Morales. It was just ten days ~ before the next election and three months before the end of the president's term -- and two months and eight days after Castro revealed his propensity to bet on how long the Cuban Revolution would last.
Latin-American revolutionists, who are laughing about this, are also noting how accurate Fidel Castro was in his July 26 speech about the alternative facing the Latin-American people. Basically, he said, they have no choice but to follow the example of the Cuban Revolution or suffer new military coups d'état and the continued unbearable rule of the oligarchy in alliance with imperialism.
CASTRO