Revolution in Venezuela

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 300, 10 March 1928, Page 9

Revolution in Venezuela

STUDENTS LYNCH SIX POLICEMEN

Feeling Against U.S.A. Aggression

By Cable.—Press Association. — Copyright.

Received 12.45 p.rn. NEW YORK, Friday. VENEZUELA has been shaken by a revolution in which 20 were killed, including six policemen, who are reported to have been lynched by unruly students at Caracas. The newspaper “El Universal” has been temporarily suppressed.

The trouble started when a parade of 400 students marched shouting, “Down with the tyrant, Gomez.” The President’s brother, Eusticino Gomez, seized the control of the army and the police, and dispersed the meetings with machine guns. The French Minister who attempted to mediate was ordered to leave the country.

The chief complaint at the students’ meeting was against the United States aggression in Nicaragua, and a denouncement of New York syndicates’ exploitation of Maracaibo oil resources.—Sun.

The President of Venezuela, General Juan Vicente Gomez, was elected on May 8, 1922, for the period 1922-1929. He assumed office on June 24, 1922. The seat of Government is at the city of Caracas, “but when any unforeseen circumstance requires, the executive power may fix its residence at any other point of the Federal district.” Potential oil production from the Maracaibo Basin is now so great, according to the estimate of exploiting companies’ experts, that it would make Venezuela the second producing country in the world, if it could be exported. The new Langunillas field seems to be the richest territory yet discovered. Last year there were 39 tankers operating on Lake Maracaibo, with an average capacity of 10,000 bushels each, and, during that month, 4,926,000 barrels of oil were carried.