Two students and two academics were injured on the campus of Universidad de Los Andes (ULA) in western Venezuela in August 2009 during an attack by a group of 30 suspected government supporters. The intruders, some of them carrying guns, burst into the canteen and attacked students. Witnesses said the attackers were known leaders of President Hugo Chavez's local movements. The attack appears to have been aimed at weakening opposition to the government's new education plans, which critics say will end university autonomy.769

During 2006, many children stopped attending school in areas close to the Colombian border for fear of being seized by armed groups responsible for forcible recruitment of children, kidnappings and unlawful killings.770

[Refworld note: The source report "Education under Attack 2010" was posted on the UNESCO website (www.unesco.org) in pdf format, with country chapters run together. Original footnote numbers have been retained here.]

769 Jonathan Travis, "Venezuela: Students and Staff Injured on Campus," University World News, August 30, 2009.

770 Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, Child Soldiers Global Report 2008.

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