Rafaela Requesens

Rafaela Requesens (born June 12, 1992, in Caracas) 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.

While she was still dancing, her brother convinced her to go to university, and she chose to study Political Studies at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), starting in 2010.

It was after her injury, which occurred during a year out, that she became interested in politics.

She also took part in the 2014 Venezuelan protests with her brother, though was not a notable figure.

In retrospect, she has said that during these protests she was "itching" to go out and experience it, fearlessly throwing things without really acknowledging the reality of the situation.

She also said that she believes her student movement is a generation below her brother's, and that they have some criticisms of the 2014 protests.

In 2015, Requesens was kidnapped by unknown parties along with a friend of her brother, Eladio Hernández.

The kidnapping occurred in the state of Táchira, for which her brother had just been elected the Representative, and was politically motivated to alarm or attack the politician.

She was a prominent figure of the 2017 Venezuelan protests, along with her brother, Juan Requesens, and has since become a prominent democracy activist.

Requesens attended high school at the Los Riscos school.

She was a flamenco dancer for fifteen years from the age of six, and wanted to pursue this as a career before facing injury due to being overweight, ultimately resulting in knee surgery after a rigorous exercise program.

She said in a 2017 interview that going to UCV was "the best thing that had happened to [her]".

After three years at university, she took a year off to study at the Culinary Institute of Caracas, but quickly returned to classes at UCV, saying this was because it is where her passions lay.

Requesens had five tattoos in 2017, getting her first tattoo aged 17, and has a lip piercing.

When criticised for these, she has reminded people that there are politicians who are visibly tattooed, like Miguel Pizarro in Venezuela.

Her favorite baseball team is Caribes de Anzoátegui.

Requesens became the president of the Federation of Students of Central University on February 17, 2017, with her platform Creo en la U[niversidad] ("I believe in the U[niversity]"), and was very quickly active in protests and politics.

She became only the second female student to hold the position.

The elections were contentious, but externally.

A few days earlier, on February 14, the Venezuelan courts had ordered the suspension of university-wide elections; the UCV votes went ahead "hoping to send a message" to the government.

Additionally, detractors were throwing tear gas canisters during the voting, ultimately entering one building with tear gas bombs and gasoline before burning the place.

In 2017, UCV had 31,762 students in 11 faculties and 44 schools.

Requesens named her brother Juan Requesens, a former president of the student foundation, as one of her political inspirations.

Still, she has said that he was not her main reason for entering politics.

Her first protests as student leader came a month and a half after her election and were staged against the dismissal of Supreme Court judges and corruption in regional elections.

One article states that she "went from organizing recreational activities, such as football caimaneras, to leading a generation".

This article gave her the epithet "tirapiedras", meaning "stone-thrower", invoking the nickname to highlight her grassroots progression.

During the protests in 2017, she became more committed to activism, being thrust in with her student position, saying she had previously been "carried away by sentimentality and ideals" but in early 2017 saw young people murdered.

On May 26, 2017, Requesens spoke at a memorial mass for students killed during the protests, held at the Aula Magna.

Later in the day she spoke about regret and pressure as a leader, using language evocative of war, saying that "[y]ou have to take these measures, knowing that there are going to be risks, but that it can be positive for the people who will come after. It is difficult to see, that you summon your comrades and they end up injured by the repression of the state. It's so lousy, because you told them what was to be done and they go because they are 'ride-or-die' and want to fight for their country. But it's your responsibility and it hurts."

Around this time, UCV adjunct professor and student politician Alfredo García said that he and Requesens "[do] not only participate in protests, but also provide support in giving [the students] political direction".

Representing the students of UCV, Requesens has taken some strong stances, including on national and international scales.

As a comparison, she added that "in [early] 2018, Venezuela [was] much calmer", which was "frustrating", but allowed her to "get up, go to college" whilst working as a student politician.

In November 2018, Requesens gave an interview where she was staying in Madrid, saying that the crisis in Venezuela had caused an exodus of students and staff at UCV, which was almost "empty".

At this point, she considered the state of higher education in Venezuela "comatose".

In May 2018, during the process of the presidential election, she announced that the university would be among the bodies that did not officially recognise the election or its results as legitimate.

In one statement shortly before the election, she explained that "there isn't the conditions that would allow you to go through the process [of challenging the election] because we are facing a dictatorship".

In May 2019, Requesens spurred student protests demanding autonomy for universities.

On May 1, the rectory of the Sucre campus of Universidad de Oriente was violently occupied by Chavistas who began defacing it.

Requesens visited the campus in support and issued a call "to the university community across the country" to protest because she perceived the government influence to be "taking our offices today and affecting university autonomy".