Venezuelan college students call for protest in Caracas on February 12th

For the first time in decades, TV channels like Venevisión have been gradually setting aside censorship to air the student movement's call for protests in Venezuela. The students will gather at the Central University of Venezuela to pressure the dictatorship to release political prisoners and continue the democratization process in Venezuela.

These protests are symbolically significant because they are taking place on Youth Day in Venezuela. This day commemorates the 1814 Battle of La Victoria, in the state of Aragua, where a group of students led by José Félix Ribas defeated royalist troops during the War of Independence. The event is also significant in recent history because it marked the moment when the 2014 protests finally erupted in Caracas after weeks of demonstrations in other states like Táchira and Mérida. These protests resulted in a massacre by the dictatorship's repressive forces, who opened fire on demonstrators like Bassil Da Costa and Robert Redman.