Guarimba protesters with a concrete mixer truck during protests against Nicolás Maduro

The guarimba is a protest method that has been used by the Venezuelan opposition in protests against the governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro. The tactic is similar to the urban guerrilla warfare tactic kale borroka used by Basque nationalists and includes individuals creating disruptions near their homes so they can quickly return in order to avoid capture.[1][2][3] According to the Venezuelan government, the method of protest is illegal according to Article 50 of the Venezuelan constitution, which states that "Everyone shall freely transit by any means throughout the national territory."[4][5][6][7]

Etymology

Origins of guarimba are from the children's game of the same name that is similar to tag, where individuals jump from one circle to the other while avoiding being captured by someone.[3]

History

Origin

The guarimba tactic was created by Cuban exile Roberto Alonso, a member of the Cuban dissident movement, head of the Venezuelan opposition group Bloque Democrático and brother to María Conchita Alonso.[3][8] Origins of the term guarimba are traced to the children's game of the same name.[3] Alonso said he created the method after reading From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp following the failed 2002 Venezuelan coup attempt while creating plans on how to remove president Hugo Chávez from office.[3] With an email list of about two million individuals, he sent an essay in May 2003 saying "EVERYONE head out into the streets IN FRONT OF OUR HOMES and remain there.... La Guarimba is total anarchy. Everyone does what they want, depending on their level of frustration."[3]

Daktari Ranch affair

During protests following allegations of fraudulent signature collections by the National Electoral Council prior to the 2004 Venezuelan recall referendum, Venezuelan opposition protesters first used guarimba tactics.[1][3] Alonso said that he and an opposition leader launched guarimba protests on 5 March 2004 and planned to have a military coup on 7 March.[3] In late February 2004, thousands of opposition protesters blocked Caracas neighborhoods and clashed with authorities.[3] Negotiations between the opposition and government agreeing on signatures led to the end of the guarimba protests.[3] Months later in May 2004, Alonso's Daktari Ranch was raided and hundreds of Colombian paramilitaries were arrested in relation to an alleged plot to overthrow the Chávez government.[3][9] According to the Washington Office on Latin America, the use of the guarimba in 2004 resulted with the opposition losing popularity.[10]

La Salida

Opposition protester overlooking a barricade with a makeshift mortar

Nicolás Maduro, the successor of Chávez, was elected in the 2013 Venezuelan presidential election, defeating opposition candidate Henrique Capriles. The Washington Office on Latin America warned that the use of the guarimba following the controversial election may lead to a similar drop in popularity for the opposition similar to its use of the tactic in 2004 and said that it would allow the Maduro government to describe protests as undemocratic.[10] Following the election, Venezuelan opposition leaders Leopoldo López, Antonio Ledezma and María Corina Machado led[11] a protest movement to remove President Maduro from office.[12][13][14][15][16] During the continued protests against Nicolás Maduro, opposition protesters used guarimba tactics, barricading streets and clashing with authorities.[17][18][19][20] The guarimba protests mainly occurred in wealthy communities and were supported by municipal police controlled by the Venezuelan opposition.[2] Following the arrest of López, families who had relatives killed or affected by violent protesters created the Committee of Victims of the Guarimba, demanding that the opposition leader remain imprisoned for his actions.[21][22]

Individuals feared clearing guarimba blockades as they believed that they would be shot.[2] Protesters cited videos of protests in Ukraine and Egypt as inspiration for their tactics in defending barricades and repelling government forces, such as using common items such as beer bottles, metal tubing, and gasoline to construct fire bombs and mortars, while using bottles filled with paint to block the views of tank and armored riot vehicle drivers.[23] Homemade caltrops made of hose pieces and nails, colloquially known in Spanish as “miguelitos” or "chinas", were also used to deflate motorbike tires.[24][25]

Critics said that guarimbas victimize local residents and businesses and have little political impact.[26] The government has also condemned their usage.[27] Opposition protesters argue that guarimbas are also used as a protection against armed groups, and not only as a form of protest.[28]

During the protests, the head of investigative journalists at Últimas Noticias resigned after being told not to do a story on guarimbas and after the manager tried to force her to say that the guarimbas were funded, that they were not protesters and to conclude the story by condemning them.[29]

2017 protests

During the 2017 protests, a military cadence of Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) officers, where they express wanting to kill protesters, went viral: "Quisiera tener un puñal de acero para degollar a un maldito guarimbero" (Spanish: I wish I had a steel dagger to slit the throat of a damn guarimbero).[30][31][32]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Capturan "paramilitares" en Venezuela". BBC News. 9 May 2004. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 Huarte, Luismi (2014-05-05). "Las "guarimbas", mucho más que una "kale borroka" burguesa". Gara (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-11-16.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Zeitlin, Janine (11 October 2007). "War on Hugo Chávez". Miami New Times. Archived from the original on 20 July 2008.
  4. ↑ "Lo que hay detrás de las guarimbas". Armando.Info (in European Spanish). 2014-03-17. Retrieved 2023-11-17.
  5. ↑ Víctimas de la Guarimba (in Spanish). Caracas: Comité de Víctimas de la Guarimba por la Verdad y la Justicia. July 2021. p. 3. The right to free transit is provided for in article 50 of the Venezuelan Constitution, so all inhabitants can 'move freely and by any means through the national territory, change domicile and residence, leave the Republic and return, move your assets and belongings in the country, bring your assets into the country or remove them, without any limitations other than those established by law.' The politically motivated acts of violence in 2017 seriously affected this right, causing violent events that affected the life and physical integrity, as well as the property of many people.
  6. ↑ s:Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela/Title 3#16
  7. ↑ "Constitucion 1999". Archived from the original on 17 April 2014. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  8. ↑ "Dirigente opositor radical denuncia allanamiento de su residencia en Venezuela". El Universo (in Spanish). 2004-05-17. Retrieved 2023-11-16.
  9. ↑ Dominguez, Francisco (2011). "Chapter 7 - Venezuela's opposition: desperately seeking to overthrow Chávez". Right-Wing Politics in the New Latin America: Reaction and Revolt. Zed Books. ISBN 9781848138148.
  10. 1 2 "Q & A on Venezuela's Electoral Stalemate". Washington Office on Latin America. 15 April 2013. Retrieved 2023-11-17.
  11. ↑ "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.
  12. ↑ "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. In January 2014, in a context of economic decline, inflation and widespread insecurity in the country, a group of opposition leaders initiated a campaign to remove President Nicolás Maduro from office. The effort was referred to as "The Exit" ("La Salida").
  13. ↑ 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. S2CID 233668765. Dubbed 'La Salida' (The Exit) by members of the opposition who called for Maduro's ousting
  14. ↑ "Venezuela: Tipping Point". Crisis Group Latin America Briefing. International Crisis Group (30): 10. 21 May 2014. López joined forces with Caracas metropolitan mayor Antonio Ledezma of the Courageous People Alliance (ABP) and independent congresswoman María Corina Machado in early 2014 in 'La Salida' to demand a change of government. This move was frowned on by the moderates in the MUD. Capriles, whose ability to appeal to disaffected chavistas had helped broaden the opposition's voter base, saw his leadership challenged by a faction whose message seemed intended to polarise, not unite, the electorate.
  15. ↑ Scully, Emma; Tovar, Daniel A. (13 August 2015). "MUD's Murky Future in Venezuelan Politics". Council on Hemispheric Affairs. a more radical wing of the opposition, which once endorsed Capriles as MUD's presidential candidate but whose tactics have included a call for "La Salida," that is, for the "exit" of Maduro from office well before a constitutionally permitted recall referendum could be legally exercised halfway through the president's term. ... Beginning as a student movement and endorsed by López and Machado, La Salida called for the early exit of Maduro from power. ... the popular sectors, which were deeply suspicious of La Salida
  16. ↑ 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. La Salida (the Exit), which emerged from divisions within the opposition. The La Salida protests began in February 2014, promoted mainly by two opposition political parties: Voluntad Popular, led by Leopoldo López, and VENTE, led by Maria Corina Machado; they lasted four months. The protesters, mainly young students, rejected President Maduro's legitimacy and hoped to force him to resign. This "insurrectional" strategy resulted in a high number of deaths, injuries, and arrests due to severe repression by the police and the uncontrolled violent government-allied gangs known as the Colectivos. La Salida also divided the opposition, represented in the Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mesa de la Unidad Democrática), over the timing, objectives, and strategies of the protests, such as the use of violent guarimbas versus electoral mobilization.
  17. ↑ "Street blockades divide opinion in Venezuela". BBC News. 27 February 2014. Retrieved 8 April 2014.
  18. ↑ 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.
  19. ↑ 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.
  20. ↑ Sanchez, Nora. "Murió mujer en una barricada en Mérida". El Universal. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  21. ↑ "Carmena recibe al Comité de Víctimas de la Guarimba y en junio se encontrará con familiares de Leopoldo López". La Información (in Spanish). 2017-05-11. Retrieved 2023-11-17.
  22. ↑ "Comité de Víctimas de las Guarimbas pide acusar a Leopoldo López de homicidio". CNN (in Spanish). 2015-11-03. Retrieved 2023-11-17.
  23. ↑ Neuman, William (26 February 2014). "Crude Weapons Help Fuel Unrest in Bastion of Venezuelan Opposition". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  24. ↑ Hallan “miguelitos” y clavos en barricadas de Ciudad Ojeda: FOTOS+VIDEO Archived 13 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  25. ↑ "Guarimbas con miguelitos y chinas: el idioma de las protestas venezolanas- América Latina- Reuters". Archived from the original on 13 April 2014. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  26. ↑ "Street blockades divide opinion in Venezuela". BBC News. 27 February 2014. Retrieved 8 April 2014.
  27. ↑ "Presidente Maduro presenta vídeo donde se observa a grupos violentos preparando guarimbas - Noticias Diarias". Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  28. ↑ "noticiascentro.com". Archived from the original on 13 April 2014. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  29. ↑ "Los periodistas denuncian más de 100 agresiones en Venezuela". La Vanguardia. 7 April 2014. Retrieved 7 April 2014.
  30. ↑ ""Quisiera degollar a un maldito guarimbero": los escalofriantes versos que cantan los militares chavistas". infobae (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-11-19.
  31. ↑ "Video: 'Quisiera degollar con un puñal de acero a un maldito guarimbero', gritan militares en Venezuela durante entrenamiento". Prensa (in Spanish). 2017-05-05. Retrieved 2023-11-19.
  32. ↑ "Funcionarios del Sebin entrenan con consignas de odio contra la oposición". Diario Las Américas (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-11-19.
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