Refugees in a camp in Colombia, Source: Wikimedia Commons
In April 2017 the Venezuelan opposition began a major campaign of street protests against the government of President Nicolás Maduro. For four months, riot police and the National Guard clashed almost every day with thousands of protesters on the streets of Caracas and other Venezuelan cities.
Armed pro-government civilians, loosely referred to as “collectives”, also played a role. The death toll was roughly one a day, with many of the victims young demonstrators caught up in what human rights organizations called “excessive use of force” by the security forces.
