Career
He was best known for his work on the 1948-1958 dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, during which he spent three years in prison. He had previously been imprisoned for four months in 1934, for publication of a poem, under Juan Vicente Gomez. Under Pérez Jiménez, Catalá"s company Editorial Ávila Gráfica printed the clandestine Democratic Action"s materials, such as newspapers and manifestos.
Catalá was arrested following the publication in 1952 of Venezuela bajo el signo del terror, 1948-1952.
A biography, José Agustín Catalá, una manera de ser hombre: libro homenaje a sus 70 años was published in 1985 by Ramón José Velásquez.
