Central University of Venezuela rectorate takeover | |
---|---|
Date | 28 March-3 May 2001 (36 days) |
Location | |
Goals | Convene a "university constituent". |
Methods | Occupation |
Resulted in |
|
The Central University of Venezuela rectorate takeover was an action carried out on 28 March 2001 by a group of left-leaning university students who violently took over the facilities, demanding a "university constituent assembly". [1]
The seizure began after a group of students, after an assembly was called in the Aula Magna, went to the University Council meeting room, threw tear gas canisters and beat up both security guards and professors. The events caused the suspension of classes at the university. The occupation lasted for 36 days, during which the violence escalated until 3 May, when the student community decided to respond to the classes suspension and expelled the occupiers by force from the rector's office.
Giuseppe Giannetto served as Vice Rector of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) between 1996 and 2000 during the tenure of Trino Alcides Díaz, Despite their ideological differences, given that Trino was a government supporter, the two maintained excellent relations. Alcides Díaz later served as director of SUDEBAN, SENIAT and as Venezuela's ambassador to Mexico. In the rectorate elections Giannetto overwhelmingly defeated Nelson Merentes, President Hugo Chávez's and Trino's candidate, and was elected to the position in 2000. [2]
During his tenure, Giannetto appointed Héctor Navarro as postgraduate director and Nelson Merentes as coordinator of the scientific development council, the two most important academic positions after the deans. The rector maintained good relations with the government, and the articulation between the executive and the university authorities managed to return the Caracas Botanical Garden and the Rental Zone to university's control. Additionally, the UNESCO officially inscribed the University City of Caracas on the list of World Heritage Sites on 2 December 2000. [2]
Beyond the usual student claims within the university, there was a climate of normality in the university space, with some exceptions. In January 2001, the Olympic Stadium of the UCV was taken over by the same group that a few months later took over the university's rector's office to prevent the Caracas Pop Festival from being held and to reject "the privatization of university spaces". Fernando Rivero, one of the participants in the takeover of the rectorate, by then an eighth semester student of Philosophy and third year law student and later a member of the 2017 Constituent National Assembly of Venezuela, told El Estímulo that the position was one of the main demands of the movement. [2]
On the morning of 28 March 2001, a group of students from different faculties and schools of the university called an assembly in the Aula Magna, which was joined by some members of the labor union and professors. At the same time, in the meeting room of the University Council (UC), the debate between the authorities and student representatives was taking place normally. At one point, those present were notified of the events in the Aula Magna and that they could go all the way to the University Council. A group of professors, including Luis Fuenmayor (who was close to the government), was appointed to dialogue with the students in company of the campus security guards in response to the violent attitude taken by the group. [2]
When the students arrived from the Aula Magna, among whom the occupiers assume the action as "an act of cowardice" on the part of the rector, the professors came out to try to mediate with them, telling them that they were discussing in the board of directors and that they were about to be received. According to Gianetto, the student group that stormed the session room numbered around 100 people. The students threw tear gas canisters and beat both security guards and teachers, who took refuge in the meeting room. Gianetto suspended the University Council in response to the violence and withdrew to his office. By the end of the afternoon, the violent atmosphere was reinforced with the arrival of other groups sympathetic to the Bolivarian revolution. According to the rector, from his office he heard numerous detonations. [2]
In an interview, Rector Gianetto says that around 7 p.m. he was approached by a security guard that informed that professor Agustín Blanco Muñoz was outside, the only professor who had broken into the session hall, and that he had "[ensured] his physical integrity" if he left the rectorate "because he [was] the new rector." Gianetto responded:
Look, Sergio, tell him and the others that I leave here with my head held high or feet first, but the rector's office is not surrendered.
Along with professor Elizabeth Marval, university secretary, and Margara Rincón, director of human resources, Gianetto decided to barricade themselves in the rector's office, where they remained for five days. [2] The students took over the facilities demanding a "university constituent assembly". Academic activities were suspended on the university campus and rumors about the possible intervention of the university started circulating. [2]
President Hugo Chávez, although he did not dismiss the objectives of the occupiers, did not directly support them either. According to Gianetto, the Minister of the Secretariat of the Presidency Elías Jaua had called him to assure him that the government did not support the events. As the rectorate takeover progressed, a court filed an injunction and gave the order for the Armed Forces to evacuate the university. The government interceded and appointed Attorney General Isaías Rodríguez as mediator of the conflict. There was not a unified position within Chavismo regarding the takeover. The most radical, among whom the rector highlighted Adina Bastidas, Eliécer Otaiza, Iris Varela and Freddy Bernal, fervently defended the occupiers, while the more moderate currents remained neutral. [2]
The student community reacted negatively against the occupiers for the classes suspension and weeks later, on 3 May, they decided to expel them. Gianetto says that the students stormed the University Council meeting room, breaking the glass access door of the rector's building because the occupiers had chained it shut, climbing into the meeting room and beginning to forcibly remove the occupiers. A large group of students formed a human corridor through which pushed them out of the building. [2]
After the rectorate takeover, the opening of an academic record was requested and an instructor was appointed to conduct an investigation of the events. Professors and students who witnessed the events testified against those involved. Fernando Rivero was expelled for five years from the university for his participation in the takeover, when he was only two semesters away from graduating from the Philosophy School. Among those expelled, but with an administrative record, was the general secretary of the Association of Administrative Employees of the UCV, Eduardo Sánchez. The only participant who was not sanctioned was Professor Agustín Blanco Muñoz. [2]
The seizure of the rector's office would give rise to the M-28 movement, a Chavista movement at the Central University. [2] The rectorate takeover was one of the most violent episodes at the university since the 1984 Tazón massacre, when National Guard soldiers shot and wounded at least 35 students, although none of them died.
Rafael Antonio Caldera Rodríguez, twice elected the president of Venezuela, served for two five-year terms, becoming the longest serving democratically elected leader to govern the country in the twentieth century. His first term marked the first peaceful transfer of power to the opposition in Venezuela's history.
Germán Suárez Flamerich was the president of Venezuela from 1950 to 1952. Flamerich was a lawyer, college professor, diplomat, and politician. He was president of the Government Junta from 1950 to 1952, after the assassination of Carlos Delgado Chalbaud.
The Central University of Venezuela is a public university located in Caracas, Venezuela. The university is widely regarded as the highest ranking institution in the country. Founded in 1721, it is the oldest university in Venezuela and one of the oldest in the Western Hemisphere. It is ranked 18th among the universities in Latin America.
The University City of Caracas, also known by the acronym CUC, is the main campus of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), located in central Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. It was designed by the Venezuelan architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000. The Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas is considered a "masterpiece" of architecture and urban planning, and greatly influenced Venezuelan architecture.
Rodrigo Arocena Linn is an Uruguayan mathematician, and rector of the University of the Republic since July 2006.
Isabel Aretz was an Argentine–Venezuelan researcher, writer, ethnomusicologist and composer.
Juan Requesens Martínez is a deputy of the Venezuelan National Assembly, elected in 2015 and sworn in on 5 January 2016. He was a student leader at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), and a leader of student opposition protesters during the 2014 Venezuelan protests. He led marches opposing the Government of Venezuela under President Nicolás Maduro, seeking "to turn the student rebellion into a broader social movement".
The 2014 Venezuelan protests began in February 2014 when hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans protested due to high levels of criminal violence, inflation, and chronic scarcity of basic goods because of policies created the Venezuelan government. The protests have lasted for several months and events are listed below according to the month they had happened.
Rafaela Requesens is Venezuelan activist and student leader, former president of the Federation of the Students Center of the Central University of Venezuela (FCU–UCV) and an organiser of student protests in Venezuela. She was a prominent figure of the 2017 Venezuelan protests, along with her brother, Juan Requesens, and has since become a prominent democracy activist.
The Aula Magna is an auditorium at the Central University of Venezuela. It is located within the University City of Caracas, next to the University's main library building. The hall was designed by the Venezuelan architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva in the 1940s and built by the Danish company Christiani & Nielsen from 1952–53. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in November 2000 for being artistically and architecturally significant. The most notable feature of the hall is its acoustic 'clouds', which serve both aesthetic and practical functions. They are an element of the hall's design which contributed to the science of interior space acoustics, though the building exterior is also architecturally significant.
Cecilia Carlota García Arocha Márquez is the current and the first female rector of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV). She is also a dentist who graduated from the same university in 1976. She uses both of her father's surnames.
The National Experimental University of Greater Caracas (UNEXCAA) is a public university in Venezuela. It is co-supervised by the Ministry of Popular Power for University Education, Science and Technology (MPPEUCT). Its campus is located in the La Floresta Urbanization, Chacao Parish, Municipality Chacao, east of the geographic center of Greater Caracas. The university was founded on 27 February 2018.
Tierra de nadie is the unofficial name of a public green space officially called Plaza Jorge Rodríguez in the University City of Caracas, the campus of the Central University of Venezuela.
Ciudad Universitaria is a Caracas Metro station on Line 3. It was opened on 18 December 1994 as part of the inaugural section of Line 3 from Plaza Venezuela to El Valle. The station is between Plaza Venezuela and Los Símbolos.
The Biblioteca Central de la UCV, or Central Library is the main library in the University City of Caracas, and the most important one of the Central University of Venezuela. It is easily accessible from anywhere in the city as it is near the Caracas Metro line 3 station Ciudad Universitaria.
Francisco Narváez was commissioned to create pieces for the University City of Caracas campus in 1949, initially working between 1950 and 1953, with other pieces added later. The artworks include stone and metal statues, busts, reliefs, and various material of murals. Three of the statues are made of Cumarebo stone: El Atleta, a large statue in the sports complex, and La educación and La ciencia in the medical complex. The Cumarebo stone is a favourite material of Narváez. Two sculptures of the esteemed doctor José Gregorio Hernández and President José María Vargas grace the campus grounds.
Operación Canguro was the intervention of the Central University of Venezuela on 31 October 1969 by orders of President Rafael Caldera.
Venezuelan artist Mateo Manaure was commissioned to create pieces for the University City of Caracas.
The Tazón Massacre occurred on September 19, 1984 in the toll of Tazón, Caracas, Venezuela, when officials of the National Guard fired on more than 200 students from the Maracay campus of the Central University of Venezuela who had arrived in four buses to a protest, causing a toll of at least 35 injured. Despite the name "massacre", no student died during the protest. The incident generated multiple student protests in various universities across the country against the behaviour of the security personnel and the demand for the resignation of the university chancellor, Edmundo Chirinos.