Venezuelan students have apparently ended their month-long hunger strike, which drew attention to imminent funding shortages at public universities, following the government’s promise to increase university budgets. [Yahoo]
Just last week, four students sewed their mouths partially shut in protest. [Impunity Watch] Over two dozen public universities were reportedly on the verge of running out of money to run cafeterias and buy supplies.
President Hugo Chavez had promised to increase student stipends and review public universities’ funding, but it was not until the minister of education promised to increase university budgets for scholarships, cafeterias, transportation and other services that the students believed their mission had been achieved. [AP]
The history of stand-offs between university students and the Venezuelan government is a long and often violent one. Just over 22 years ago, when the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez instituted reforms that increased transportation costs and eliminated student transportation discounts, rioting and protests broke out. In the resulting government crackdown, known as “El Caracazo“, as many as 3,000 people were killed by police and military forces. In 1999, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued its judgment on the merits of the complaint brought by family members of some the victims of Caracazo and found that Venezuela had violated articles 4.1 (right to life), 5 (inhumane treatment), 7 (liberty), 8.1 (due process), 25 (judicial protection), and 27.3 (suspension of guarantees) of the American Convention on Human Rights, and ordered the government to, inter alia, investigate and prosecute those responsible. To date, no government agent has been convicted in relation to Caracazo. [Venezuelan government; Ultimas Noticias]
More recently, the Chavez administration has faced fierce opposition among the student population. In the run up to the constitutional referendums held in 2007 and 2009 which, in 2009, allowed the elimination of term limits for elected politicians (including the president), students came out in large numbers and faced criticism by the government and confrontation with police, who were instructed by Chavez to “give them the good gas” and detain protesters. [BBC; El Espectador; Globovisión] Venezuelan students have also protested the prosecution of opposition politicians, a practice that has also been condemned by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. [Reuters; IACHR] Venezuelan organization PROVEA recently released a report on public demonstrations in Venezuela during 2010 (available here, in Spanish).