Venezuela: Grassroots Movements Demand Justice After Tenant Killed in Eviction Attempt
Caracas, November 27, 2025 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan social movements are calling for action from judicial authorities after tenant Eduardo Súnico was killed Sunday in his home during an eviction attempt.
According to local witnesses, the purported landlord, Italo Di Pascuale, shot Súnico and his wife Elvira Viviani during an attempt to evict the couple from their home. Neighbors recorded the incident, stopped the assailant from fleeing, and ensured that law enforcement agents too him into custody.
Viviani remains hospitalized at the time of writing. Di Pascuale, a neurosurgeon at Caracas’ Military Hospital, is detained but has yet to be charged.
The couple had reportedly lived as tenants for more than two decades in the Quinta Canaima development in Bello Monte in eastern Caracas.
The Pobladores Movement, an alliance that brings together collectives that struggle for housing rights, called the incident a “high point” in a “trend of forced evictions.”
“Human life is above capital,” the Pobladores statement read. “In Venezuela, housing is a right and not a commodity.” The communiqué also raised the possibility that Súnico was targeted for being a Chavista grassroots activist.
The organization additionally pointed the finger at the Attorney General’s Office and security forces for their complicity in eviction processes. Di Pascuale was accompanied by police officers in his effort to expel the Súnico family.
“It is regrettable that the Attorney General’s Office continues to enforce a policy of criminalizing tenants and building occupiers that has already forced thousands of families out on the streets in irregular proceedings,” the statement added.
According to reports, Di Pascuale bought the property in the wake of an unsettled inheritance dispute and began efforts to evict the tenants in late 2024. A court hearing had been scheduled for December 10.
Dozens of activists from Pobladores and allied organizations held an emergency rally on Wednesday in front of the Ombudsman’s Office in Caracas to demand prompt justice for Súnico.
Rigel Sergent, a National Assembly Deputy and longtime activist for tenants’ rights, told Venezuelanalysis that a “thorough investigation” is necessary to establish the facts surrounding Súnico’s death, the property ownership and Di Pascuale’s past history of violence.
“We need to have justice so this does not become a dangerous precedent whereby landlords take matters into their own hands in the name of private property,” Sergent emphasized.
Despite legislation protecting tenant rights and limiting rent increases, the Venezuelan Tenants’ Movement has denounced a growing number of eviction attempts in recent years. Landlords have turned to public prosecutors to charge tenants with “invasion” and turn civil affairs into a criminal case.
The Tenants’ Movement has held meetings with multiple institutions and criticized the Attorney General’s Office and police forces for executing evictions by claiming that property owners are protected by a law that defends elder citizens’ rights.
Edited by José Luis Granados Ceja in Comayagua, Honduras.