Guarimba
Guarimba is a term colloquially used in Venezuela for a protest method primarily used by the Venezuelan opposition[1][2][3][4][5][excessive citations] that involves erecting street barricades or roadblocks.
Alonso said the protest method was inspired from the book From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp, which he read after 19 people were killed in the Llaguno Overpass shootout and President Hugo Chávez was briefly ousted in the 2002 coup attempt.
[11] By December 2002 Alonso started sending emails criticizing Chávez and detailing future actions, until his addresses list amassed over two million contacts.
Alonso also proposed three "golden rules" for the guarimba: The first protests, known as the "Guarimbazo",[7][16][17] began on 27 February 2004 and lasted five consecutive days, taking place mainly in middle and upper class neighborhoods of Caracas and fifteen other cities of the country.
[16][18][17] The demonstrations sought to protest against the decisions of the National Electoral Council, after it announced that the signatures presented to request the 2004 presidential recall referendum had to be examined a second time.
[21] That year, the "guarimba" consisted in erecting barricades near homes, with garbage and fire, and remaining present as long as no security forces or pro-government supporters arrived.
[18] In its 2004 annual report, non-governmental organization PROVEA registered that 27 out of 370 street closures between October 2003 and September 2004, resulted in violence, although it acknowledged that there was a significant underreporting of these.
[11] Two days later on 11 May, Alonso continued to call for rebellion against Chávez, making radio announcements in Venezuela promoting protests, saying "the illusion that we are going to overthrow a Castro-communist dictatorial regime with signatures, that does not exist.
"[23] President Chávez used the term at an event in Carabobo in January 2009, referring to protests against the 2009 constitutional referendum, suggesting the government use police to forcibly dissolve them.
[26] Guarimbas were particularly common in the Táchira state and were even used to protect demonstrations, preventing security forces from advancing into areas where rallies or marches were taking place.
[27] Traffic blockades were carried out in streets and avenues, mainly in middle and upper class residential neighborhoods nationwide, and became places where opposition demonstrations regrouped.
[28] Canadian Political Scientist Don Kingsbury wrote that guarimbas were "explicitly framed as a means of protecting established zones of privilege from government supporters" and described barricades as a "practice of erecting policed borders at the internal-racial and class-borders of the city.
[26] A former official of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) told the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela that its director, Carlos Calderón [es], was directly involved in torture within the agency during the protests.
[3][29] During the 2014 protests, retired general Ángel Vivas tweeted a suggestion that wires should be hung across streets as a defense against pro-government colectivos; the Venezuelan government issued an arrest order against him afterwards.
[45] Protesters have used homemade caltrops made of hose pieces and nails, colloquially known in Spanish as "miguelitos" or "chinas", to deflate motorbike tires.
[8] According to The Atlantic, guarimbas are used by "more radical elements" of the opposition that the protest method helped the government instead, providing a justification to crackdown on demonstrations.
The manual recognizes that such a group may not intend to cause harm and may be demonstrating for lack of services or civil and political rights, also stating that military intervention is required, accusing them of generating violence.
