VENEZUELA: Spate of Insurrections

A string of angry little insurrections—some of them with the support of dissidents in the armed forces—flared across Venezuela last week. They were speedily quenched by Colonel Marcos Pérez Jiménez and his ruling military junta. The timing and dispersion suggested that a projected nationwide revolt had exploded prematurely. The uprisings:

¶ At Turén, western Venezuela agricultural colony, armed civilians attacked a National Guard post. Repelling the charge, Guardsmen killed one rebel. In nearby Villa Bruzual, civilian revolters captured the National Guard prefecture, but the Guard retook it, killing four.

¶ At Boca del Rio air force base, 40 miles west of Caracas, two officers tried to induce the rest to rebel. Failing, one fled and the other surrendered.

¶ Two days later, at Maturin, big air junction in eastern Venezuela, a group of soldiers, civilians and members of the Seguridad Nacional (Secret Service), led by two army officers, seized the Seguridad headquarters and police barracks. In 2½ hours of fighting, loyal troops recaptured the garrisons, killing three rebels.

Although the government was never in serious trouble, the jumpy junta impetuously arrested the leaders and many members of the two "safe" political parties it has been allowing to campaign for the Nov. 30 elections. Then, without explanation, it freed them and blamed the uprisings (as it blames most of its troubles) on Acción Democrática, the big left-wing majority party the junta drove underground in 1948. The government promised that the election would come off as planned.