Juan Requesens Martínez is a deputy of the
Venezuelan National Assembly, elected in 2015 and sworn in on 5 January 2016. He was a student leader at the
Central University of Venezuela
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
(UCV), and a leader of student opposition protesters during the
2014 Venezuelan protests
In 2014, a series of protests, political demonstrations, and civil insurrection began in Venezuela due to the country's high levels of urban violence, inflation, and chronic shortages of basic goods attributed to economic policies such as strict ...
. He led marches opposing the
Government of Venezuela
Venezuela is a federal presidential republic. The chief executive is the President of Venezuela who is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the President. Legislative power is vested in the National Assembl ...
under
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
*'' Præsident ...
Nicolás Maduro
Nicolás Maduro Moros (; born 23 November 1962) is a Venezuelan politician and former union leader serving as the 53rd president of Venezuela since 2013. Previously, he was the 24th Vice President of Venezuela, vice president from 2012 to 20 ...
, seeking "to turn the student rebellion into a broader social movement".
Requesens was
arrested in August 2018 but was released on 28 August 2020. In 2022, he was charged eight years in prison for his alleged participation in the
Caracas drone attack
On 4 August 2018, two drones detonated explosives near Avenida Bolívar, Caracas, where Nicolás Maduro, the President of Venezuela, was addressing the Venezuelan National Guard, Bolivarian National Guard in front of the Centro Simón Bolívar T ...
.
He was released in October 2023 in a deal between the Venezelan government and the United States after the latter nation agreed to ease
sanctions on Venezuela.
Student politics
In 2011, Requesens was elected the student president of the
Central University of Venezuela
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
(UCV), where he began his political endeavors, studying
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...
.
Requesens began demonstrations against the Venezuelan government in January 2013 when he helped organize a joint protest of students from UCV and
Andrés Bello Catholic University
Andrés Bello Catholic University () is a private university in Venezuela. One of the largest universities in Venezuela, UCAB has campuses in several cities, such as Caracas (main campus), Los Teques, Guayana Region, Guayana, and Coro region, Cor ...
. He was still the president in 2014, becoming a leader for the mass protests that year, and facing threats after another student leader at the
Universidad Nacional Experimental del Táchira
The Universidad Experimental del Táchira, also known as Universidad del Táchira or UNET, is a public university founded on February 27, 1974 in San Cristóbal, Táchira, Venezuela. Recently, the university has 8,240 students among undergraduate ...
was killed.
At UCV, he used
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
to hold student debates, and ''The Washington Post'' noted he was a talented public speaker.
[
Requesens said in 2014 that his political idol was former Venezuelan president ]Rómulo Betancourt
Rómulo Ernesto Betancourt Bello (22 February 1908 – 28 September 1981; ), known as "The Father of Venezuelan Democracy", was a Venezuelan politician who served as the president of Venezuela, from and again from Second presidency of Rómulo ...
, who is known as the "father of Venezuelan democracy". According to ''The Washington Post'', he is a "social democrat" who believes in "equality of opportunity" and a "market economy with social goals".[
]
2014 Venezuelan protests
Requesens frequently used technology to organize people; the 12,000 Twitter followers he had at the beginning of 2014 had increased to 450,000 by March, and he was able to assemble protests against the government from his cellphone.
The main demands of Requesens' movement were for the release of protesters who had been jailed and justice for protesters killed and allegedly tortured. After rising to notoriety in early 2014, Requesens was pressured by the Venezuelan government to encourage violent protestors to stand down, particularly in the state of Táchira
Táchira State (, ) is one of the 23 States of Venezuela, states of Venezuela. The state capital is San Cristóbal, Táchira, San Cristóbal.
Táchira State covers a total surface area of and as of the 2011 census, had a population of 1,168,9 ...
where the violence broke out. He was also asked to attend meetings with President Maduro, but refused because of the human rights abuses; he then requested that if a meeting were to be held with Maduro, that it would be broadcast live on television. ''The Washington Post'' said that Requesens "insist dthat Maduro free jailed protesters and meet other preconditions" before he would meet with him.[ He believed then that asking for Maduro's removal as president was a "dead end" and said that the "strategy of escalating confrontation will just give the government the chance to discredit us and continue with more repression".] According to ''The Washington Post'', he was more like Henrique Capriles
Henrique Capriles Radonski (; born 11 July 1972) is a Venezuelan politician and lawyer, who served as the 36th Governor of Miranda (state), Miranda from 2008 to 2017.
Born in Caracas, he received a degree in law from the Universidad Católica ...
in "tone and strategy", and more moderated than the "hard-line wing" of opposition from Maria Corina Machado and Leopoldo López
Leopoldo Eduardo López Mendoza (born 29 April 1971) is a Venezuelan opposition leader. López was elected mayor of the Chacao Municipality of Caracas in the 2000 Venezuelan regional elections, regional elections held in July 2000. He is the N ...
.
National Assembly
Shortly after he was elected in 2015 to the National Assembly, Requesens' sister, Rafaela Requesens, and a friend, Eladio Hernández, were kidnapped by unknown parties in the state of Táchira
Táchira State (, ) is one of the 23 States of Venezuela, states of Venezuela. The state capital is San Cristóbal, Táchira, San Cristóbal.
Táchira State covers a total surface area of and as of the 2011 census, had a population of 1,168,9 ...
.
Requesens was assigned to the National Assembly Commission for Social Development and Integration. In April 2016, amid teaching strikes, Requesens and Miguel Pizarro volunteered to work on the Education Law bill — which had not been developed in over a decade — to raise teachers' minimum wage and bring standards into law. By 2016, Requesens was calling for Maduro's resignation.
Requesens attempted to run for Governor of Táchira, the state for which he was already a deputy, in 2017. However, the electoral commission refused to accept pre-candidates to the ballot, and so votes in his favor were not counted, something he spoke against in the Assembly the day after the vote.
In early 2018, Requesens was part of the faction of the Assembly that formed a coalition called the ''Frente Amplio Venezuela Libre'' to ask for free elections in the country, and for Maduro to leave, saying that the opposition and country has to move forward civilly.
Experiences of violence
Requesens and Juan Pablo Guanipa
Juan Pablo Isidoro Guanipa Villalobos (born 20 December 1964) is a Venezuelan lawyer and politician who served as deputy and First Vice President of the National Assembly, leader of the Justice First political party and former governor of Zulia ...
were briefly detained on 30 November 2017 when they tried to cross the border to Colombia. In May 2018, Requesens was one of the politicians to step in when press personnel were being attacked by guards outside the parliamentary buildings, fighting with the soldiers; the same day, Requesens and Carlos Paparoni
Carlos Alberto Paparoni Ramírez (10 September 1988) is a Venezuelan politician
Career
He is a deputy of the National Assembly for the fourth circuit of the Mérida state. During the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis, he has been working as ...
were attacked and held down when trying to come to the defense of journalists outside the Supreme Court. He rejoined street protests the next day, rejecting elections due later in the week.
2017 Venezuelan protests
Requesens was back on the street in 2017, now as an elected deputy. In April 2017, Requesens was with other young protestors marching on the Ombudsman's office when he was attacked, along with another deputy. He was hit in the head and received deep cuts on his face. According to José Manuel Olivares, Requesens had to have surgery to fix broken bones including his nose and jaw, and to stitch up his forehead. The march had been calling for the resignations of the Justices of the Supreme Court.
In June 2017, Requesens was again attacked, this time by members of the Bolivarian National Guard
The Bolivarian National Guard of Venezuela ( - GNB), is a gendarmerie component of the National Armed Forces of Venezuela. The national guard can serve as gendarmerie, perform civil defense roles, or serve as a reserve light infantry force. The n ...
— though he referred to them as " colectivos" in an interview on — who then threw him down a sewer drain, as well as stealing from him and others. The Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
n government issued a communication denouncing the excessive use of violence, especially against politicians, and sought to remind Venezuelan military officials that their Constitution requires them to prevent unnecessary violence towards protestors.
Arrest
On 7 August 2018, Requesens had given a speech in Venezuela's National Assembly blaming Maduro for causing unrest in the nation. In this speech, he used the saying, "I refuse to give up": "I refuse to give up, I refuse to kneel in front of those who want to break our morale. Today I can speak from here, tomorrow I do not know. What I want to reaffirm is that we are going to continue doing everything we can to take Nicolás Maduro out of power."
Requesens was arrested that day by the Bolivarian Intelligence Service
The Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (, SEBIN) is the premier intelligence agency in Venezuela. SEBIN is an internal security force subordinate to the Vice President of Venezuela since 2012 and is dependent on Vice President Delcy Rodríg ...
(SEBIN). He was detained as a suspect in the Caracas drone attack
On 4 August 2018, two drones detonated explosives near Avenida Bolívar, Caracas, where Nicolás Maduro, the President of Venezuela, was addressing the Venezuelan National Guard, Bolivarian National Guard in front of the Centro Simón Bolívar T ...
, an alleged assassination plot on the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
Nicolás Maduro Moros (; born 23 November 1962) is a Venezuelan politician and former union leader serving as the 53rd president of Venezuela since 2013. Previously, he was the 24th Vice President of Venezuela, vice president from 2012 to 20 ...
. The circumstances of his arrest and detention are controversial, and irregularities surround the legal proceedings. He was imprisoned in El Helicoide
El Helicoide is a building in Caracas, Venezuela owned by the Venezuelan government and used as a facility and prison for both regular and political prisoners of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service, Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEB ...
since his arrest, with allegations of torture to coerce a confession, and delays impeding the legal process and hearings. He was sentenced to 8 years in prison in August 2022.
Requesens' detention has been condemned by the National Assembly – as well as international diplomats, politicians and organizations – and large protests have been held in Venezuela demanding that he be freed. His relatives and fellow politicians have stated that they believe he was arrested for criticizing Maduro. The National Assembly condemned the detention of Requesens as a forced disappearance
An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person with the support or acquiescence of a State (polity), state followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person's fate or whereabouts with the i ...
.
The Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
hashtag
A hashtag is a metadata tag operator that is prefaced by the hash symbol, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services–especially Twitter and Tumblr–as a form of user-generated tagging that enable ...
"#YoMeNiegoARendirme" – Spanish for "I refuse to give up" – became a popular slogan for his case, and a creed for the opposition.[
In 2022, Requesens was sentenced to eight years in prison for his alleged role in the ]Caracas drone attack
On 4 August 2018, two drones detonated explosives near Avenida Bolívar, Caracas, where Nicolás Maduro, the President of Venezuela, was addressing the Venezuelan National Guard, Bolivarian National Guard in front of the Centro Simón Bolívar T ...
. Placed on house arrest, Requesens was later released in October 2023 when President Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...
reached a deal with the Maduro government to ease its sanctions on Venezuela.
Personal life
Requesens' father is a doctor, his mother is an English teacher, and his sister, Rafaela Requesens, is an activist. Requesens is married to Orianna Granati, and they have two young children.[
]
See also
* Detention of Juan Requesens
* Fernando Albán Salazar, another PJ National Assembly deputy detained, supposedly for association to the drone attack
* Political prisoners in Venezuela
Notes
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Requesens, Juan
Politicians from Caracas
People from Táchira
Central University of Venezuela alumni
People of the Crisis in Venezuela
Venezuelan democracy activists
Political prisoners during the Bolivarian Revolution
Venezuelan prisoners and detainees
Justice First politicians
Living people
1989 births
Venezuelan torture victims
Members of the National Assembly (Venezuela)
Movimiento Estudiantil (Venezuela)