25 Facts About Rafaela Requesens

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

Rafaela Requesens 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.

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

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

Rafaela Requesens 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, Rafaela Requesens was kidnapped by unknown parties along with a friend of her brother, Eladio Hernandez.

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

Rafaela Requesens became only the second female student to hold the position.

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

In November 2018, Rafaela 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".

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

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

Rafaela 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".

Rafaela Requesens led student walkouts at UCV in May 2019 after the university stated that classes would be ongoing despite a large number of deaths from the 2019 Venezuelan protests; medical students at the university joined in walkouts for their patients who they couldn't treat due to lack of resources.

Rafaela Requesens said that despite the irregularities and politicizing of the Electoral Commission, she would ensure that the election would run as fairly as possible.

Rafaela Requesens led a protest specifically against these latter issues, saying that the government should change instead of the Constitution.

Rafaela Requesens was interviewed by Voice of America about a protest towards the end of June 2017, called Trancazo Nacional, organised by the Democratic Unity Roundtable.

Rafaela Requesens called it a "positive example" of the change she was trying to bring to the country, because it engaged many different people in peaceful rebellion, and celebrated that during a student trancazo, Caracas and other cities had effectively been shut down for up to four hours, from a combined effort of walkouts and roadblocks.

Rafaela Requesens was featured in Bloomberg "Week in Pictures" on August 9,2018, due to the global status her position had suddenly achieved.

Rafaela Requesens said that she and her brother had been targeted because "the government is scared of young people".

In some of these protests, such as the underwear demonstration in Plaza Brion, Rafaela Requesens helped lead students and faculty from UCV alike.

Rafaela Requesens spoke at a United States government hearing on the situation in Venezuela on 7 March 2019, announcing that she was to receive an award in the International Women's Day honors the next day.

Rafaela Requesens received the Jeane J Kirkpatrick Award from the Women's Democracy Network, being one of three awarded such in 2019.

Shortly after the election of Juan Guaido as the National Assembly President, and with Maduro refusing to step down as President, Rafaela Requesens led students in a protest co-hosted by Guaido's Popular Will party, calling Maduro a "usurper" and closing off roads.

Rafaela Requesens asked for people of all political affiliations to work together and with the supportive foreign governments in order to "restore democracy".