The Vietnamese Embassy in Venezuela held a meeting on July 22 to honour Venezuelan guerillas who participated in the Nguyen Van Troi campaign in 1964.

Vietnamese Embassy in Venezuela holds meeting to honour Venezuelan guerillas
who participated in the Nguyen Van Troi campaign in 1964 (Photo courtesy of 
Vietnamese Embassy in Venezuela) 

The event was attended by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Venezuela Oscar Figuera, head of its Committee for Foreign Relations Carlorus Wimmer, General Secretary of the Committee for International Solidarity & the Struggle for Peace (COSI) Gabriel Aguirre, and two former guerillas Carlos Rey and Raul Rodriguez.

Speaking at the event, Ambassador Le Viet Duyen expressed his profound gratitude for guerillas of Venezuela’s Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN).

He affirmed that Vietnam always attaches importance to its friendship and comprehensive cooperation with Venezuela and pledges to further intensify bilateral relations ad collaboration at multilateral forums.

The Nguyen Van Troi campaign was organised by Venezuelan guerillas who abducted US lieutenant colonel Michael Smolen on October 9, 1964 in an effort to leverage the release of young Vietnamese patriot Nguyen Van Troi, who had been sentenced to death by the US and Saigon regime for his assassination attempt on US Defence Secretary Robert McNamara.

However, three days after the Caracas guerillas released the US hostage on October 12, the US and the Saigon administration killed Nguyen Van Troi in order to suppress the emerging anti-US movement in Vietnam and around the globe.