1995 Urologico San Roman Tragedy

The Urológico San Román tragedy was a hostage crisis that occurred on June 23, 1995 at Instituto de Clínicas y Urología Tamanaco, also called Urológico San Román in Caracas, Venezuela when three gunman held the urological clinic to escape from the police after a robbery.

Background

When entering the Chivacoa street of San Román Hills, Juan Manuel Méndez noticed that in one of the houses, the door is ajar. He warned Oscar García and other two men got out and quickly reached that door, which gave access to the parking lot of the Fiorenza neighborood, owned by the Taddei Family.

Outside, a neighbor passing by on the sidewalk noticed that there was trouble and call the Baruta Police. In the meantime Oscar García was getting nervous to be discovered and when he could see that the police were arriving in the area he decided to abandon his companions and went home.

The Shooting

At that point, Juan Manuel Méndez with the other two men, Juan Antonio Alberto Peña and Rubén Darío Rojas asked the Taddei for the exits that the house had. After they took the young Claudio Patricio Taddei hostage and left behind.

The Fiorenza neighborhood is surrounded by the police officers and when the gunmen arrived with the hostage in the Urological San Román the hopes of escape soon would vanish and the first reaction of the desperate men was to shoot. The hostage, astonished to see himself in the midst of the fire, slipped and fell, meanwhile Rubén Darío Rojas escape. The shooting followed and when the remain two realized that they were in a blind street, they threw Claudio as a sack of potatoes to the policemen, and taking advantage of their confusion to escape in the Urological Clinic when seven women working there with a doctor, three nurses, a receptionist and two secretaries.

The San Román tragedy

When they came, two of the women ran to hide. One in a bathroom and another in a safe. The other five ladies Aida Molina, Gloria Ojeda, Zulay Quintero, Virginia Castro and Teresa Rodríguez were taken to a small office. Commissioner Gustavo Moros, then took the first negotiations, tried to persuade the subjects to lay down their attitude and surrender peacefully. The area was filled with police officers, journalists, political leaders and curious citizens. In minutes, 300 officials coped the ground. 35 snipers took positions, while cameramen and reporters rustled behind the agents around the building.

Commissar Gustavo Moros, now accompanied by Dick Rivas, chief of investigations, insisted on talking to the criminals and they came to propose an exchange, they two for the women but Juan Méndez and Antonio Peña dismissed the offer. The authorities with the intention of gaining time delivering a car and the men prepared to leave, covered their faces with improvised hoods and ordered the women in Indian file. At the head of the line was Aida, pointing to the head was followed by one of the offenders, Teresa Rodriguez was third, followed by Virginia and Zulay who preceded the other subject and last serving as a shield to this one was Dr. Gloria Ojeda.

The situation resulted in chaos and the women screaming and crying to let them go angering the gunmen. Commissar Morales came up with a new Toyota. He parked it a few yards from where the other was, determined to play the last card, the thugs organized the transfer, this time the group was more compact, Antonio Peña came forward surrounding Aída's neck with his arm. Two snipers, who had the order to neutralize the kidnappers, were hiding in equidistant points to wait for the right moment and act in sync.

At 5:30 pm a projectile struck the head of Virginia Castro. Teresa Rodriguez turned right to see the agonized Antonio Peña firing his pistol against Aida Molina while saying: "As the police failed me, now I kill you." The nurse crouched on the seat, Pena collapsed as Virginia Castro threw herself wounded into a gutter, seeking shelter from the bullets. From there he could see his friend Aida lying on the floor. Juan Manuel had placed Dr. Gloria Ojeda as a shield, seven of the projectiles directed at him impacted her. Sotero Pérez, head of the Brigada de Acciones Especiales tried to approach behind, the gunman detected him and shot him in the head, was the last thing he did before he fell dead. Zulay Quintero meanwhile, in a nervous breakdown only managed to cover the bleeding face, one of the bullets had emptied his left eye.

Aftermath

The result of the shootout could not be more terrible. Aída Molina de Valbuena and Gloria Ojeda were dead, the Commissioner Sotero Pérez and Zulay Quintero were seriously wounded as Virginia Castro. The bodies of Juan Manuel Méndez and Antonio Peña ended up in the morgue of the hospital Pérez de León.

Investigations

On the Saturday 24 June the head of Interior Minister Ramón Escovar Salom was called for and demanded an impartial investigation that would lead to establishing political and criminal responsibilities.

On Sunday afternoon, after three hours of meeting, the Minister of Interior announced to the country the conclusion of the investigations that the first bullet was fired by one of the offenders. This he said he had been able to determine after examining a video provided by the Agencia Venezolana de Noticias. That statement did not convince anyone and on Monday, the Attorney General of the Republic, Dr. Iván Darío Badell, warned that the formal investigations of the case would be carried out by his office and that a video was not enough to reach any conclusion. This originated a skirmish between the Prosecutor and the minister Escovar Salom, to which the Minister of Justice Rubén Creixems was added referred to the lack of coordination between the various factors of power to seek solutions to problems.

At the beginning of the week a relative of Zulay Quintero receive threats after the statements of the origin of the shots: The same thing repeated with Virginia Castro when the Brigada contra Homicidios tried to interrogate her about it.

At the same Tuesday a subject identified as Franklin José García was arrested by the Guardia Nacional in an operation related to the theft of a vehicle. When being taken to the command it was detected that in fact it was Rubén Darío Rojas with false certificate.

On Wednesday, the circle was closed with the arrest of Oscar García who remained hidden in a ranch of the village of Vigirima, in Carabobo state. Peasants in the area became suspicious when they saw the stranger and denounced him.

In the aftermath the investigations passed from the judicial plane to the parliamentarian. On 10 July, the special committee of the Chamber of Deputies investigating the events determined that the shooters assigned to the urological operation had incorrectly carried out the operation. The case are definitely closed on the November 28, 1995 when the Tribunal Décimo de Primera Instancia en lo Penal took up investigations into the case.

Memorials

In December 1998 the promotion of graduates in Police Sciences was named "Commissioner Sotero Pérez Izquierdo", in honor of the officer who died in the performance of duty during the events in the Urological San Román.^[1]

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