The voice of students in Venezuela
What happened with Venezuelan academia throughout the last decades
Venezuela then and now
– We experienced human rights violations linked to electoral rights, persecution of activists, politicians, journalists, and workers who were fired illegally, says Leonor Mancera.
She is a former student at UiO who came to Norway after studying law in Venezuela. Her familiarity with electoral fraud in particular comes from working as an electoral observer before Hugo Chavez was re-elected in 2012.
– Thousands upon thousands of registrations of irregularities go way back to the 2012 election, the 2013 election, the 2018 election, and now this 2024 presidential election. There were people outside of electoral centers, intimidating people so they wouldn't vote. There were also really strong measures within government offices to ensure that their employees wouldn't vote for the opposition, with threats that they would lose their jobs if they did.
Persecution and poverty plague the country. In such a way that Venezuelans struggle to obtain necessities.
– People were very poor, very hungry, and that's why almost a third of the population left the country.
Human Rights activism
Although she has now lived in Norway for 8 years, she and other regime-critical Venezuelans living abroad tread carefully.
Many decided to go undercover, speak silently, or anonymously on social media
– We have to be very careful about what we post or what we say, because we know that they could go after our families back home in Venezuela.
Mancera moved to Norway in 2018 to pursue the Masters in Theory and Practice of Human Rights. Like many students, she became an activist in Venezuela and has been since.
– I have always done a bit of activism in my free time, and that's where my passion for human rights came.
Her passion for studying human rights stemmed from the persecution she witnessed as a student shortly after the election of Nicolas Maduro.
–A lot of the population started feeling really frustrated, and there was a huge public outburst against the government.
Censorship and student life
For many students at Venezuelan universities, opposition to the regime is common, but protective measures are taken to ensure safety.
– Academia in Venezuela was and is very vocal, but in a very careful way. You would hear in classrooms people talking openly about what is going on in Venezuela, but it's forbidden to record, for example. So that the teachers don't get in trouble.
Unfortunately, for some teachers at the Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas, care wasn't enough to prevent arbitrary arrests.
We have to be very careful about what we post or what we say, because we know that the government could go after our families back home in Venezuela.
–It was quite a shock for me to find out that one of my teachers at the university where I was studying a specialization in public and political communication, had been arrested in 2025. He had been arbitrarily detained for almost an entire year and was released three days ago. I found out because his name showed up in the release report.
The shadow of arbitrary detention, which heightened following the 2019 political crisis of the assembly, follows students to this day. Despite a gradual confidence in speaking openly, many have decided to criticise the regime anonymously.
– Many decided to go undercover, speak silently, or anonymously on social media. But publicly, it will take a while for them to be able to at least openly start speaking about the political aspect
The role of students in political change
Jemima García-Godos is a professor at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo. When asked about the role of academia, she reflected on the lack of interest in student exchanges with the region. She hopes that more students at Blindern engage with Latin America even after their studies.
– If something good comes out of this crisis, it's a renewed interest in Latin America.
We need more researchers, we need more students, what we need is more people who are interested in Latin America.
Mancera looks back at her initial conversations in 2018 with her classmates from the Human Rights master's program, also highlighting the importance of accessible information in improving our understanding of Latin America.
– I was quite surprised when I first got here because there was very little knowledge about the human rights violations that we were experiencing in Venezuela. Particularly those linked to electoral rights, persecution of activists, politicians, and journalists.
