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Salient. Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 26, No. 1. Monday, February 25, 1963

Violence . . . And Theft

Violence . . . And Theft

The Failure of a medical school strike at the Central University in Caracas in October is another "straw in the wind" signalling a possible turning away from the: violence which has plagued Venezuela's largest university.

The 16.000 students have beer under the control of leftists who have used the university—because of its traditional immunity from the police—as a centre and arsenal; for subversion and terrorist attacks on Caracas itself.

The left-extremists are a coalition of the Communist Party, the Marxist Movement of the Revolutionary Left, and the Republic Democratic Union. This coalitior won the Central University student elections in May and the coalition lost the elections of deans and members of the administrative University Council to the moderates.

In June, its main opposition, the leading moderate left party, the Social Christians (COPEI). won the student elections at the University of Zulia, the second largest university in the country.

In the medical school incident the leftists had seized upon student objections to a new rule re quiring entrance examinations and called a boycott. But 300 of the 550 applicants defied the boycott and reported for the tests. Professors helped them evade the pickets by crawling through tunnels and climbing in the real windows of the examination hall, or driving them by automobile to secret examination sites.

After a few days, all but 60 of the holdouts gave up and asked to take the examinations.

A Group of some 15 armed students stole five French impressionist paintings on loan from France co a Venezuelan museum early in January in an attempt to put pressure on President Romulo Betan-court.

The terrorists, students at the Central University in Caracas, a centre of Communist and pro-Castro agitation, demanded in return for the paintings a halt to the Betancourt Government's step-ped-up drive against subversive activities.

The paintings, which were on exhibition in the museum of the Fina Gomez Foundation, were valued at over 500.000 dollars. They include "Lilies in a Copper Vase" by Van Gogh; still-lifes by Picasso. Gauguin, and Braque; and 'The Bathers" by Cezanne. Although the paintings were heavily insured, it was feared that they might be damaged by rough handling.

Spokesmen for the Louvre Museum in Paris commented only; "Very bad news." The paintings were recovered several days later, some of them slightly scratched.