HAIT-Kolloquium
The Erosion of Academic Freedom in Venezuela: A Comparative Analysis of Threats Across the Americas

This lecture will analyze the state of academic freedom and autonomy within higher education institutions in Venezuela, identifying the primary restrictions, reprisals, threats, and challenges from a comparative Latin American perspective. The analysis will be grounded in international human rights law standards, with a specific focus on the Inter-American Principles of Academic Freedom and University Autonomy. From a comparative Inter-American approach, the lecture will examine Venezuela's legislative and institutional framework and assess the compatibility of its domestic law and the practices of its branches of public power with international standards. The analysis will highlight the restrictive policies against academic freedom and university autonomy in Venezuela, which are evident through several key mechanisms:

• The normative-institutional framework.
• Budgetary strangulation of universities.
• Criminalization of protest and discrimination against professors and students.
• The usurpation of competencies of public autonomous universities by ministerial authorities.
• Judicial siege against universities.
• Generalized practices of intervention in higher education institutions.

The situation has been further exacerbated by the complex humanitarian emergency in Venezuela, which profoundly affects the university as a critical institution for democracy and its key stakeholders: professor-researchers and students. This lecture will comprehensively explore these challenges and their implications.

David Gómez Gamboa is Associate professor at School of Law of University of Zulia (Venezuela). He has a degree in Law (Summa Cum Laude, University of Zulia, 2000), Journalism (Cum Laude, Catholic University Cecilio Acosta, 2007 in Venezuela), postgraduate studies in Human Rights (University Complutense of Madrid, Spain, 2001) and Political Science (PhD University of Zulia, 2008). Currently, he is the founding director of Aula Abierta, a non-governmental organization that promotes academic freedom and university autonomy in Latin-America, and coordinator of the Law School’s Human Rights Commission at the University of Zulia. Also, David is a human rights activist in the context of academic freedom and university autonomy. With his NGO, Aula Abierta, he denounces human rights violations in the Latin-American university context.

The lecture is part of the HAIT-colloquium „Under pressure. Attacks on science in democracies and dictatorships“ in the winter semester 2025/26.

The colloquium takes place via Zoom.

This event is financed by the Saxon State government out of the State budget approved by the Saxon State Parliament.