44 years ago, on July 28, 1978. A warm month of July. In a much hotter year due to the electoral panorama that he was experiencing and that had climaxed, in March, with the death of the presidential candidate and social communicator Renny Ottolina. That day one of the most notorious cases in the history of Venezuelan violence would occur.
It is the story of the murder of the criminal lawyer of Trujillo origin, Ramón Carmona Vásquez, 36, who had been monopolizing space in the headlines of the media, due to the cases he was handling, but above all because of his controversial accusations.
Carmona, had become a harsh critic of Commissioner Manuel Molina Gásperi’s management of the Judicial Police Technical Corps (CTPJ), predecessor of what is now the Criminal and Criminal Scientific Investigations Corps (Cicpc).
The accusations were directed especially against the director of the CTPJ, Molina Gásperi, whom he accused of alleged administrative corruption and of using his power in favor of his relatives.
The director of the CTPJ was already in the middle of a media hurricane because in March officials from the Tactical Operations Support Group (GATO) destroyed the remains of the aircraft in which Renny Ottolina, his campaign manager Carlos Olavarría, died. and three companions.
The destruction of the plane, without further investigations to clarify the incident, strengthened the thesis on the participation of factors of political power in the alleged murder of Renny.
The rivalry between Molina and Carmona came to a head. The criminal lawyer announced that he would present “convincing evidence” on the link between the director of the CTPJ and corruption cases, he would present evidence on a case of extortion carried out against a businessman and other cases that would include accusations against Molina’s relatives.
The afternoon of July 28. Ramón Carmona Vásquez was walking along Andrés Bello Avenue, in front of the Andrés Bello Center building, when two men got out of a car and tried to get him to accompany them. There was a struggle and Carmona tried to flee, but one of the subjects shot at Carmona, who received 15 shots.
The investigations were initiated by the same police reported and despite the cover-ups, the identity of the murderers was determined, they were from the Gato group.
Officials Xavier Jesús Anuel Pacheco, who was sentenced to 21 years in prison, and Pablo José Díaz Martínez, who spent 14 years in prison, were then arrested. The first was the material author of the murder and the second the direct accomplice of it. In addition, Jesús Enrique Villarroel and Domingo Sánchez, who participated in the crime, were convicted. More than 20 officials were also arrested for cover-up.
The detainees did not act autonomously, they did so as subordinates of Manuel Molina Gásperi, director of the CTPJ and head of the GATO Group, so on November 8 of that year the new director of the CTPJ was arrested and charged as the mastermind of the crime. However, he was released. He would die years later in a plane crash, the trial against him was never initiated.
Carmona left three children. For years her wife, Gladys de Carmona, fought against the State for compensation. In 2007, the TSJ ordered the Republic to pay one thousand one hundred million one hundred one thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven bolívares of the above, or its equivalent in Bolívares Fuertes, for damages caused by the murder. Two magistrates saved their votes because they considered that the amount was less than the moral and social damages caused. CDM
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