The short answer
On 11 April 2002, gunfire near the Llaguno Overpass in central Caracas during a mass march toward Miraflores Palace left 19 people dead and about 127 injured, an event that preceded the 2002 Venezuelan coup attempt. Responsibility for the shootings remains disputed, and no one was ultimately convicted.
No one's coverage is attached to this file yet.
Know great coverage of this case?
A documentary, a podcast episode, a careful long-form video. Suggest it and an editor will review it before it appears here.
Suggest coverage for Llaguno Overpass eventsOn 11 April 2002, a large opposition march in Caracas, organized amid a general strike against President Hugo Chávez, moved from Parque del Este toward the headquarters of the state oil company PDVSA and then toward Miraflores Presidential Palace. As demonstrators approached the palace, the National Guard fired tear gas to disperse them, and marchers rerouted along Baralt Avenue near the Llaguno Overpass, where groups of Chávez supporters (Bolivarian Circles) had gathered. Clashes broke out involving rocks, Molotov cocktails, tear gas, and eventually gunfire. According to medical staff at Vargas Hospital, opposition marchers arrived first, some shot in the back while fleeing and others wounded by military-caliber rifle rounds associated with National Guard weapons; pro-Chávez supporters were treated afterward. Nineteen people died, most between 3:20 pm and 3:55 pm, and more than 150 were injured.
Responsibility for the killings has never been conclusively established and remains contested. The opposition version attributes blame to Chávez and his supporters, citing a Venevisión camera that recorded people firing handguns from the pro-Chávez counter-march on the overpass. Senior military officers, led by Vice Admiral Héctor Ramírez, publicly blamed Chávez for the deaths in a broadcast video, though the timing and circumstances of that recording are disputed by journalists who were present. Witnesses also described gunfire from the Ausonia and Eden hotels; ten suspects were detained, but all were released for lack of sufficient evidence linking them to the shootings. A pro-Chávez mayor was accused by a military officer of directing gunfire at demonstrators, an allegation he denied. Competing documentary films have offered conflicting reconstructions of the timeline and origin of gunfire, with disputes over the authenticity and interpretation of key camera footage.
In the aftermath, the military high command refused to implement a contingency public-order plan requested by Chávez and demanded his resignation; he was briefly arrested by the military before returning to power on 14 April. Following his return, cleanup crews organized under a pro-Chávez mayor rapidly repaired the street and removed physical evidence, including bullets and shell casings, within five days, and the government replaced investigators handling the case.
Four men filmed shooting from the overpass — Rafael Cabrices, Richard Peñalver, Henry Atencio, and Nicolás Rivera — were identified as pro-Chávez activists, arrested, and held for about a year awaiting trial, but the charges against them were dropped before trial began. No one has been convicted in connection with the deaths. The events remain a contested episode central to competing narratives about the broader political crisis and the coup attempt that followed.
Labor and business leaders hold speeches at CTV headquarters denouncing Chávez and announce a march for the following day.
Mass march toward PDVSA headquarters and then Miraflores Palace; National Guard uses tear gas; gunfire erupts near the Llaguno Overpass on Baralt Avenue, leaving 19 dead and about 127-150 injured, most deaths occurring between 3:20 pm and 3:55 pm.
Seven detained suspects, identified after registering under real names at the Ausonia Hotel, are handed to the Prosecutor's Office; only one is found carrying an unfired weapon.
Chávez returns to power; cleanup crews under a pro-Chávez mayor begin repairing Baralt Avenue.
Baralt Avenue reopens after physical evidence at the scene had been collected and destroyed within five days.
Head of the Casa Militar presents a report to the National Assembly on the detentions of suspected snipers.
Documentary The Revolution Will Not Be Televised is released, disputing claims that pro-Chávez gunmen fired on opposition protesters from the bridge.
Documentary Puente Llaguno: Claves de una Masacre is released, presenting a competing timeline of the shootings.
Rafael Cabrices, one of the men filmed shooting from the overpass, dies of a heart attack.
Henry Atencio, another of the identified men, dies.
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
Opposition demonstrator reported killed near the overpass just before 2:30 pm on 11 April 2002.[3]
Identified as a pro-Chávez activist filmed shooting from the Llaguno Overpass on 11 April 2002; arrested and jailed for about a year, and the original homicide charges against him were dropped. He was tried alongside Rafael Cabrices, Richard Peñalver, and Nicolás Rivera on charges of illegal firearm possession and resisting authority before the Fourth Trial Court of the Judicial Circuit of Aragua state, which acquitted all four men in 2003, finding they had fired in self-defense against police and snipers. He was never convicted; he died in May 2017.[3]
Identified as a pro-Chávez activist filmed shooting from the Llaguno Overpass on 11 April 2002; arrested and jailed for about a year, and the original homicide charges against him were dropped. He was tried alongside Henry Atencio, Rafael Cabrices, and Richard Peñalver on charges of illegal firearm possession and resisting authority before the Fourth Trial Court of the Judicial Circuit of Aragua state, which acquitted all four men in 2003, finding they had fired in self-defense against police and snipers. He was never convicted.[3]
Identified as a pro-Chávez activist filmed shooting from the Llaguno Overpass on 11 April 2002; arrested and jailed for about a year, and the original homicide charges against him were dropped. He was tried alongside Henry Atencio, Richard Peñalver, and Nicolás Rivera on charges of illegal firearm possession and resisting authority before the Fourth Trial Court of the Judicial Circuit of Aragua state, which acquitted all four men in 2003, finding they had fired in self-defense against police and snipers. He was never convicted; he died in August 2005.[3]
Identified as a pro-Chávez activist filmed shooting from the Llaguno Overpass on 11 April 2002; arrested and jailed for about a year, and the original homicide charges against him were dropped. He was tried alongside Henry Atencio, Rafael Cabrices, and Nicolás Rivera on charges of illegal firearm possession and resisting authority before the Fourth Trial Court of the Judicial Circuit of Aragua state, which acquitted all four men in 2003, finding they had fired in self-defense against police and snipers. He was never convicted; per English Wikipedia he died in 2026.[3]
Coverage is not a source: every fact in this file rests on the records below.
Are you family of someone named in this file? Corrections and removal requests from victims’ families are prioritized.
UNSOLVEDListenLa Vega Parish, Caracas, Venezuela · 2020s
On 8 January 2021, Venezuelan security forces raided La Vega Parish in Caracas to seize control from a criminal organization, resulting in a reported death toll of 23 or more people that human rights groups say included extrajudicial killings.
SOLVEDListenCúa, Miranda, Venezuela · 1990s
In April 1998, an 18-year-old gunman in Cúa, Venezuela, took a woman and her family hostage during a failed bakery robbery, leading to a seven-hour standoff that ended when a police marksman fatally shot him to save the hostage.
Credit: nrkbetaCC BY-SA 2.0SourceSOLVEDListenOslo and Utøya, Norway · 2011
On 22 July 2011, Anders Behring Breivik detonated a car bomb in Oslo's government quarter, killing 8, then carried out a mass shooting at a Workers' Youth League (AUF) summer camp on the island of Utøya, killing 69. He was convicted in 2012 and sentenced to 21 years of preventive detention, Norway's maximum sentence.
Credit: Hwy43CC BY-SA 3.0SourceSOLVEDListenJames Roszko's farm near Rochfort Bridge, north of Mayerthorpe, Alberta · 2005
On March 3, 2005, James Roszko shot and killed four RCMP constables at his farm near Mayerthorpe, Alberta, before killing himself; two men who helped him return to the property later pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Credit: BenchillCC BY-SA 3.0SourceOVERTURNEDListen65 Every Street, Andersons Bay, Dunedin · 2007
In June 1994, five members of the Bain family, parents Robin and Margaret and three of their children, Arawa, Laniet and Stephen, were shot dead at their home in Dunedin, New Zealand. Eldest son David Bain was convicted in 1995, but the Privy Council quashed his convictions in 2007 and he was acquitted on all counts at a 2009 retrial; the case remains publicly disputed.
SOLVEDListenTrujillo, Venezuela · 1812
In 1813, Simón Bolívar issued a decree in Trujillo, Venezuela, authorizing the killing of Spanish-born civilians who did not actively support South American independence, while granting amnesty to Americans regardless of prior collaboration with Spanish authorities — a policy that fueled mutual atrocities during the Venezuelan war of independence until it was formally ended in 1820.
