Berenguer Padilla was an instructor of the
Cadets of the Republic in
Ponce. He set up his shoe repair shop at Marina and Aurora streets, at a building used by the
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party to celebrate its meetings in that city. The
Insular Police carried out the 1937 Ponce massacre, under the instructions of US-installed governor
Blanton Winship, outside this building. in
Barrio Segundo in
Ponce, Puerto Rico In 1938, Berenguer and other Nationalists were accused of the murder of Col. Luis Irizarry of the Puerto Rican National Guard, in their attempt on the life of U.S.-installed governor Blanton Winship in retaliation for the Blanton-ordered Ponce massacre. The other Nationalists also accused of murder by the government of Blanton Winship in relation to the massacre were Luis Castro Quesada, Julio Pinto Gandía, Lorenzo Piñeiro, (Interim President and Interim Secretary General of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party), Plinio Graciani, Tomás López de Victoria, Martín González Ruiz, Elifaz Escobar, Luis Ángel Correa, Santiago González, and Orlando Colón Leyro. Of this group, only
Tomás López de Victoria, Santiago González, Elifaz Escobar and Berenguer Padilla were members of the cadets. On September 28, 1938, Berenguer was convicted with other
Nacionalistas in connection with the attempted assassination of Governor Winship (in retaliation for the
Ponce massacre) during the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the U.S. military invasion of Puerto Rico. The others convicted were Tomás López de Victoria, Elifaz Escobar, Santiago González, Vicente Morciglio, Leocadio López, Juan Pietri, Guillermo Larrogaiti, and Prudencio Segarra. ==Death and legacy==