La Salida

Leopoldo López and María Corina Machado, presenting La Salida. Juan Guaidó is behind.

La Salida (lit. 'The Exit') was a Venezuelan opposition political campaign launched on 23 January 2014 that was based on civil disobedience in an effort to bring an end to the government of President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro.[1][2]

The initiative was promoted by Leopoldo López, Antonio Ledezma and María Corina Machado,[3] leaders of the Democratic Unity Roundtable. Maduro's opposition became energized after López turned himself in pursuant to an arrest warrant, shortly after the 2014 wave of protests started.[4]

Timeline

A march in Las Mercedes, Caracas shortly after López was arrested

Rising violence, the murder of Mónica Spear and her husband,[5] and a troubled economic climate of high inflation and food shortages[6][7][1] led to protests mostly by students.[8] Demonstrations started on 5 January 2014 in Mérida state, with the death of University of the Andes student Héctor Moreno, and intensified on 4 February in San Cristóbal, Táchira state, after the attempted rape of a student of the university.[9] López presented La Salida alongside the student protests.[1] Henrique Capriles led a moderate approach in opposition to Maduro while López and Machado were described as more radical.[10][4][1]

On 12 February, on Venezuela's Youth Day and the bicentennial of the Battle of La Victoria, Movimiento Estudiantil called for a march from Plaza Venezuela in Caracas to the Public Ministry to demand the release of a group of young demonstrators detained days before in San Cristóbal, with the march ending at 2:00pm.[11] Officials of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service shot and killed student Bassil Da Costa.[9] An hour later clashes occurred in the La Candelaria Parish; protesters skirmished with authorities, who responded with tear gas.[11] Colectivo member Juan Montoya and protester Robert Redman [es] were also killed the same day.[12][9][11]

That night, an arrest warrant was issued against López, who was charged with Da Costa's murder and the violence during the protests, with the crimes of "conspiracy, incitement to commit a crime, public intimidation, premeditated aggravated homicide and terrorism".[13] He turned himself in on 18 February[7][13]

In the months after, the majority of protests have been peaceful, consisting of demonstrations, sit-ins, and hunger strikes,[14][15] although small groups of protesters have been responsible for attacks on public property, such as government buildings and public transportation. Erecting improvised street barricades, dubbed guarimbas, were a controversial form of protest in 2014.[16][17][18][19] The Maduro government grew more repressive towards the opposition responding to the protests.[20]

See also

• Protests against Nicolás Maduro

References

1. Munger et al. 2019, p. 817.
2.  • Bellaviti, Sean (May 2021). "La Hora de la Salsa : Nicolás Maduro and the Political Dimensions of Salsa in Venezuela". Journal of Latin American Studies. 53 (2): 373–396. doi:10.1017/S0022216X21000237.
   • "Venezuela: Tipping Point". Crisis Group Latin America Briefing (30). International Crisis Group: 10. 21 May 2014.
   • Scully, Emma; Tovar, Daniel A. (13 August 2015). "MUD's Murky Future in Venezuelan Politics". Council on Hemispheric Affairs.
   • García-Guadilla, María Pilar; Mallen, Ana (January 2019). "Polarization, Participatory Democracy, and Democratic Erosion in Venezuela's Twenty-First Century Socialism". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 681 (1): 62–77. doi:10.1177/0002716218817733.
   • "The Real Threat to Venezuela's Democracy". Human Rights Watch. 9 April 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
   • López, Leopoldo (26 February 2016). "Three steps Venezuela must take to turn the country around". The Washington Post.
   • "How Venezuela's Independent Digital News Outlets Are Covering the Turmoil in Their Country". Nieman Reports. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
   • "Venezuela death toll rises to 13 as protests flare". Reuters. 25 February 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
3. "Quién es Antonio Ledezma, el alcalde opositor arrestado por el gobierno de Venezuela" [Who es Antonio Ledezma, the opposition mayor arrested by the Venezuelan government] (in Spanish). BBC Mundo. 20 February 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
4. Pizzi, Michael (19 February 2014). "Venezuela unrest energizes opposition". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
5. Moro 2023, Chapter 4.
6. "Detailed findings of the independent international fact-finding mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela" (PDF). United Nations Human Rights Council. 15 September 2020. p. 14.
7. "Venezuela protest death toll rises to 13". Al Jazeera. 24 February 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
8. Zuñiga, Mariana (28 April 2017). "Amid Venezuela's protests, 'Green Cross' medical students are here to help – and to stay". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
9. González, Andrea (12 February 2021). "12F: A siete años del inicio de "La Salida", ¿dónde están los protagonistas?". Runrunes. Retrieved 3 November 2023. En 2014 las manifestaciones habían comenzado el 5 de enero, en el estado Mérida, tras la muerte del bachiller Héctor Moreno de la Universidad de los Andes de Mérida. Luego se intensificaron el 4 de febrero en San Cristóbal, estado Táchira, tras el intento de violación de una estudiante de la ULA.
10. Watts, Jonathan (21 February 2014). "Venezuelan opposition leader, Leopoldo López, tells his allies to keep fighting". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
11. Meza, Alfredo (13 February 2014). "Venezuelan protests leave three dead and dozens injured". El País. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
12. "The Real Threat to Venezuela's Democracy". Human Rights Watch. 9 April 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2023. the more confrontational leaders of the opposition mobilized their supporters to march in the streets, and declared that they wouldn't stop until they achieved la salida: the exit of Maduro from office
13. Kobelinsky, Fernanda (18 February 2017). "La historia detrás de la detención de Leopoldo López: sus horas previas, por qué se entregó y la sorprendente oferta de Maduro". Infobae (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 November 2023.
14. "Protestas aumentan 278% en primer semestre 2014". La Patilla. 17 July 2014. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
15. "Universitarios del Táchira levantaron la huelga de hambre". El Universal. 15 July 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
16. "Street blockades divide opinion in Venezuela". BBC News. 27 February 2014. Retrieved 8 April 2014.
17. Cawthorne, Andrew; Ore, Diego. "Chilean is first foreign fatality in Venezuela unrest". Reuters. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
18. Johnston, Jake. "Venezuela: Who Are They and How Did They Die?". Center for Economic and Policy Research. Archived from the original on 23 March 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
19. Sanchez, Nora. "Murió mujer en una barricada en Mérida". El Universal. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
20. Jiménez, Maryhen (February 2023). "Contesting Autocracy: Repression and Opposition Coordination in Venezuela". Political Studies. 71 (1): 47–68. doi:10.1177/0032321721999975. S2CID 236367812.

Works cited

• Moro, Javier (2023). Nos Quieren Muertos [They Want Us Dead] (in Spanish). Espasa.
• Munger, Kevin; Bonneau, Richard; Nagler, Jonathan; Tucker, Joshua A. (October 2019). "Elites Tweet to Get Feet Off the Streets: Measuring Regime Social Media Strategies During Protest" (PDF). Political Science Research and Methods. 7 (4): 815–834. doi:10.1017/psrm.2018.3. S2CID 9694407. Retrieved 27 October 2023.