VENEZUELAN SCHOOLS

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29984, 20 November 1962, Page 15

VENEZUELAN SCHOOLS

Murder Brings Probe Demand

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) CARACAS (Venezuela), November 18.

The murder by proCommunist youths of a high school teacher before the eyes of his mathematics class has started demands for a sweeping investigation of Venezuela’s school system, United Press Internationa] reported today. All secondary schools in Caracas were closed after the killing on Thursday. The teacher. Jose Damian Ramirez, the father of seven children, was fatally beaten and shot by a pro-Communist youth squad who were attempting to terrorise the Caracas night school, said U.P.I. After the murder, authorities obtained a warrant to enter the autonomous Centra! University of Venezuela, traditionally out of bounds to law enforcement bodies, in the interest of “academic freedom.”

They arrested Jorge Ramon Villalobos Anez, aged 22. who was charged with the murder Villalobos, who graduated last year from the school tn which the teacher was shot, is a member of the proCommunist Movement of the Revolutionary Left. In his room, police said they found radio equipment, hand grenades, a pistol similar to the one used in the killing, and bullets. Police said they were seeking a university professor who attempted to aid Villalobos to escape. Students of the murdered teacher said the youths burst into the classroom and ordered Ramirez to suspend classes in “commemoration” of the first anniversary of the death of a terrorist who was shot while attempting to burn a bus. The teacher was killed when he refused. A number of trade and professional groups linked to the Democratic Action Party of the President (Mr Romulo Betancourt) have demanded that the university be stripped of autonomy, and that the national teaching corps be purged again of Communists. The Government recently announced the forced retirement of 730 alleged Communist teachers.