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][3][4][5][6]

The initiative was promoted by Leopoldo López, Antonio Ledezma and María Corina Machado,[7] 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.[8]

Timeline

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

Rising violence, the murder of Mónica Spear and her husband,[9] and a troubled economic climate of high inflation and food shortages[1][2][10] led to protests mostly by students.[11] 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.[12] López presented La Salida alongside the student protests.[10] Henrique Capriles led a moderate approach in opposition to Maduro while López and Machado were described as more radical.[3][8][10]

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.[13] Officials of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service shot and killed student Bassil Da Costa.[12] An hour later clashes occurred in the La Candelaria Parish; protesters skirmished with authorities, who responded with tear gas.[13] Colectivo member Juan Montoya and protester Robert Redman were also killed the same day.[14][12][13]

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".[15] He turned himself in on 18 February[2][15]

In the months after, the majority of protests have been peaceful, consisting of demonstrations, sit-ins, and hunger strikes,[16][17] 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.[18][19][20][21] The Maduro government grew more repressive towards the opposition responding to the protests.[22]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "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").
  2. 1 2 3 "Venezuela protest death toll rises to 13". Al Jazeera. 24 February 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2023. a nationwide effort called 'la Salida' or 'the Exit,' aimed at ending Maduro's rule.
  3. 1 2 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. López launched a radical movement named 'La Salida' (The Exit) which aims to unseat the president through protests.
  4. ↑ Tayler, Jeffrey (10 June 2015). "Venezuela's Last Hope". Foreign Policy magazine. Archived from the original on 11 June 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2023. [López] reminded his viewers that 'we're on the right side of history. We're on the right side of justice. We're on the right side of truth. … Our cause must be la salida' — the exit — 'of this government [from power].' ('La Salida' became the name of the entire anti-Maduro protest movement.)
  5. ↑ Munger et al. 2019, p. 817, Quote: The La Salida (“the exit”) protests of 2014 represented a serious effort to oust the regime of President Nicolás Maduro, and the protesters en guarimba (in a blockade) paralyzed parts of the capital of Caracas from February 12 to May 8. ... On January 23, María Corina Machado and Leopoldo López called for La Salida, a movement to protest in the street with the aim of removing the Maduro from power. ... On February 5, the attempted rape of a university student on a campus in Táchira in the southeastern part of the country led to a small student protest that provoked a violent governmental response. This was publicized by La Salida, which hoped to use student anger to advance their movement. ... During the height of the protests, opposition groups advocating La Salida in Caracas set up permanent blockades (guarimbas) designed to paralyze the city and heighten the economic crisis. In response, the regime allowed armed paramilitary groups called colectivos to attack, rob, and kill opposition protesters. ... the moderate opposition “gave up” on supporting the aggressive strategy of La Salida to oust the Maduro government only a few weeks into the protest..
  6. ↑  • 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
    • "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.
    • 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
    • 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.
    • "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
    • López, Leopoldo (26 February 2016). "Three steps Venezuela must take to turn the country around". The Washington Post. Two years ago I was imprisoned for calling for a constitutional, democratic and peaceful change in the Venezuelan government. Our plan was called La Salida, 'the exit.'
    • "How Venezuela's Independent Digital News Outlets Are Covering the Turmoil in Their Country". Nieman Reports. Retrieved 12 November 2023. Opposition leaders demanded the exit of Maduro from power, and "La Salida" ("The Exit") was the name given to the nationwide movement.
    • "Venezuela death toll rises to 13 as protests flare". Reuters. 25 February 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2023. Lopez, a 42-year-old Harvard-educated economist and firebrand opposition leader, rode the coattails of those protests to create a nationwide effort called "La Salida" or 'The Exit' meant to end Maduro's rule.
  7. ↑ "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.
  8. 1 2 Pizzi, Michael (19 February 2014). "Venezuela unrest energizes opposition". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
  9. ↑ Moro 2023, Chapter 4.
  10. 1 2 3 Munger et al. 2019, p. 817.
  11. ↑ 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.
  12. 1 2 3 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.
  13. 1 2 3 Meza, Alfredo (13 February 2014). "Venezuelan protests leave three dead and dozens injured". El País. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  14. ↑ "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
  15. 1 2 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.
  16. ↑ "Protestas aumentan 278% en primer semestre 2014". La Patilla. 17 July 2014. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
  17. ↑ "Universitarios del Táchira levantaron la huelga de hambre". El Universal. 15 July 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
  18. ↑ "Street blockades divide opinion in Venezuela". BBC News. 27 February 2014. Retrieved 8 April 2014.
  19. ↑ 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.
  20. ↑ 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.
  21. ↑ Sanchez, Nora. "Murió mujer en una barricada en Mérida". El Universal. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  22. ↑ 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

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