INTRODUCTION

We have not been able to reconstruct, for now, for the new generations a historical approach to Industrial Safety, as we already did with Occupational Medicine [available at https://naturaytrabajo.blogspot.com/2023/07/una-pequena-historia-de-la-medicina-del.html] and with Occupational Hygiene [available at https://naturaytrabajo.blogspot.com/2021/03/breve-resumen-de-la-historia-de-la.html].

But in this attempt to establish dates, characters and institutions that give us insight into the origins of the Industrial Safety discipline in Venezuela, I have returned to the events and found the most serious accident in the oil industry of all time, which caused the total destruction of the population of Lagunillas de Aguas in 1939.

This "accident" allows us to establish that at least until 1939, there was no security in the Anglo-Saxon companies that took control of the country with Juan Vicente Gómez, despite the fact that the country had a Mining Code, promulgated in 1855, which contemplated provisions for security, first aid and medical care.

Therefore, the starting point will be this incident from 1939. The intention of this writer is to continue following the trail of more information that will allow us to recognize the pioneers in this discipline, who are surely from the foreign oil companies, and we will dedicate future texts to that, as the information becomes richer.

THE INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT THAT DESTROYED TWO VILLAGES

The context:

Until the 1920s, on the Eastern Coast of the Lake (COL) of the state of Zulia there were Lagunillas de Aguas and Lagunillas de Tierra. The first was disappeared with an industrial "accident", the second with the advance of the oil companies to establish their facilities, it is even said that with the phenomenon of subsidence, what remains of Lagunillas, despite being Cultural Heritage, is about to disappear.

The original population was mainly indigenous, dedicated to survival through fishing, planting tubers and making baskets and other handicrafts, but with internal migration to the oil fields, Lagunillas de Aguas experienced an unusual growth and a change of life, from a peaceful lake to the pandemonium that Gabriel Bracho painted in his 1984 work "Lagunillas de Aguas".

With the start of production in 1926 of the Lago-1 well, the hypothesis of the Lagunillas oil field was confirmed, and Venezuela Gulf Oil (Shell) would join the exploration.

Lagunillas is a diminutive of Lagunas, it was named after the swamps that existed there since ancient times. Lagunillas, along with present-day Ceuta, Tomoporo, Moporo and Sinamaica, was one of the "Water Towns" built by the indigenous people on stilts driven into the bottom of Lake Maracaibo.

We have already written about living conditions in oil fields at https://naturaytrabajo.blogspot.com/2022/05/aproximacion-al-aporte-de-los.html, but let Taborda (2016) present us with some of his stories as a first-hand witness, in this case of a blowout in Cabimas:

The consequences of the blowout and then the fire at well No. 28 in La Montañita de La Rosa were fatal, with invaluable losses. More than 400 workers were employed in the construction of the retaining walls, all of whom, tired, sought refuge in the corners of the producing drill and most of them sought out the walls they had built as beds. When the fire broke out, they were searched for in the most accessible places and near the burning well. No one knew what happened to them, whether they succumbed or managed to save themselves, which is very difficult in such cases. Only the companies could attest to this, only they could say whether they were safe or devoured by the flames. Their names had to appear on their lists, and also because they had to receive the demand for payment for their exhausting work in building the retaining walls. But they had no interest in saying anything. On the contrary, they were interested in no one mentioning the case and that no one appeared or their fate was known.

The "accident" of 1939 and its consequences:

Let's start by remembering that in some texts, putting quotation marks around a word can indicate that its application in the context under discussion is being questioned. Well, that being the case, my hypothesis is that the companies required those spaces to plant the goats, as they did immediately after the event, and that is why there was no accident, but rather a crude elaboration so that an event would serve the interests of the Anglo-Saxon companies.

Jesús Farías, an exceptional witness of that day, says:

"In November 1939 I was in Lagunillas. I worked for the party (the PCV) and for the union, without any remuneration. On November 14 (I should say the 13th) of 1939, a sublacustrine oil pipeline exploded, right in front of Lagunillas. The layer of "live" oil began to cover the shores of the lake, where the houses of that small tropical and aboriginal "Venice" were built on maporas."

"As the dangers increased, we began to complain to the authorities and to Gulf, the company responsible for the "burst." However, nothing was done to prevent the fire that seemed inevitable if the valve of the broken oil pipeline was not closed. At about eight o'clock in the evening, a violent fire broke out and covered thousands of square meters of surface above the water and under the wooden houses raised on stilts. This fire, fueled by a strong breeze that was blowing at that time, trapped thousands of men, women, children and the elderly. Some people saved their lives by setting out into the lake in canoes. Others crossed the fire by the gangplank, but this was cut off within a few minutes."

"As the town was trapped between the docks of the Gulf Oil Company and the Venezuelan Oil Company, the sailors on duty anchored there brought their boats closer and saved many people, but those who lived in the center almost all died burned or drowned. When the fire broke out, I was giving my elementary school classes a few meters from the shore. Three of my students ran to save their belongings, but all three disappeared. They were young, powerful workers, good swimmers, and yet they perished. What could be expected for the unfortunate mothers loaded with small children?"

The companies' version of the incident, reported by newspapers such as Panorama and others serving international capital, was that there was not enough oil to cause a fire, which was the result of an explosion of a lamp in one of the bars that were populated in the areas where the oil workers were staying. The owner of a bar was even identified as the person responsible, and signatures were even presented supporting this version, which she rejected, but her version was not taken to the press.

In addition, these newspapers emphasized the "good" that had been produced with the destruction of the "den of vice" that was Lagunillas de Aguas, without caring about the lives of the people who died there that day; the national government in charge of Eleazar López Contreras did not even take notice, the foreign companies did not report anything, and the local newspapers of the time spoke of between 50 and 100 deaths. Abroad, the event was reported in various ways, for example in the New York Times edition they headlined: "Oil fire investigation. Venezuelan board estimates that deaths will not exceed fifty."

Life Magazine headlined: "100 people die in oil town, Lagunillas." La Vanguardia of Spain was more expeditious, headlined: "A fire destroys the town of Lagunillas. A thousand dead. All of Lake Maracaibo in flames." In Singapore, The Straits Times indicated that "Hundreds of people died in the fire of an oil town" and in Australia, The Post Cairn headlined: "Eight hundred deaths. Oil port destroyed. Venezuelan disaster."

For local investigators such as those mentioned in the references, the figure must have been around 2,000 dead that fateful night.

As an epilogue:

I have no doubt that the destruction of Lagunillas de Aguas was a premeditated, organized, intentional act, which confirms the research on industrial homicides that I carried out for my doctoral thesis. I only regret not having used this case as a support for the research, at least as a precedent, because I focused on the period that begins with the promulgation of the LOPCYMAT.