New York Times
January 4, 1958. p. 6.
Caracas Guard is
Continued—Rebel Fugitives Detained Temporarily in Colombia
By Tad Szulc
Special to The New York
Times
CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan. 3—Wednesday’s abortive revolt against the regime of President Marcos Perez Jiménez dropped from the news columns of Caracas newspapers tonight, as well as from the official airwaves. The appearance of normalcy returned to this capital.
As if to emphasize that all is well again after the tension of the previous two days, the Government announced tonight that the President’s New Year reception for the diplomatic corps would be held tomorrow morning.
It had been scheduled for Wednesday, but the revolt, spearheaded by air strikes on Caracas in a short-lived action forced a suspending of social functions.
The only mention of the rebellion in the afternoon’s edition of El Heraldo, the Government newspaper, was in editorials. A front-page statement called the military men in the rebellion “traitors” to the nation and poured scorn on them for absence of leadership and lack of preparation in staging the uprising.
As all organized resistance ceased yesterday with the surrender of rebel troops at Los Teques, about fifteen miles southwest of here, the marked display of security measures in Caracas was lessened.
Several tanks, armored cars and anti-aircraft batteries still guarded the Presidential Palace of Miraflores, occasional military vehicles patrolled the streets and policemen carrying rifles occupied strategic spots in Caracas.
From the rest of the country there were reports of complete calm.
The 43-year-old President Pérez Jiménez, in power here since 1948, seems to have had the support of the ranking leaders in the armed forces.
Special to The New York
Times
BOGOTA, Columbia. Jan. 3—Eighteen Venezuelan rebels who fled to Colombia yesterday were still in custody of the Colombian intelligence service today in the Caribbean port of Barranquilla, according to the national headquarters of the service.
The rebel officers arrived at Barranquilla airport before dawn yesterday in a Venezuelan Army plane reported to be the one usually used by President Marcos Pérez Jiménez. They left Maracay at about midnight when it became apparent that the rebellion had failed.
Carlos Sanz de Santamaría, Colombia’s Foreign Minister, said yesterday that the Venezuelans would be released shortly and would be “free to live anywhere they like in Colombia except in towns on the Venezuelan border.”
The Foreign Minister also noted that it was only proper that Colombia provide asylum for the Venezuelans since “at least 10,000 Colombians” who fled from the dictatorship of Gen. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla between 1953 and early 1957 were still living in Venezuela.
Venezuelan exile sources in New York said yesterday that hundreds of political enemies of President Pérez Jiménez were being arrested in Venezuela.
They said that among those held was Lorenzo Fernandez, second in command of the catholic Socialists party and a university professor in Caracas.