A student from outside Caracas who comes to the university is assured of the respect and admiration of his neighbors, a tribute given to one who has already taken a high place in their society.

The students' self-confidence has been strengthened by political events since the war. In that period, two dictators have been overthrown, Gomez in 1945 and Perez Jimenez in 1958, both by revolutionary movements that began at the university.

With its freedom from police intervention, the university provided the only place in which dissident groups could meet regularly in safety. In both revolutions, student rioting provided a crystallization point for discontent with the regime, and a coup d'etat by the army followed.

The students have continued to think of themselves as the natural focus and outlet for discontent with the regime Betancourt's government has provoked dissatisfaction among those who think that despite progress in education and land reform, it is not doing enough about basic economic problems, such as unemployment. Corruption is alleged in the bureaucracy, and especially in the police, the natural target of student violence.

Because of the scarcity of manpower few employers at the time of hiring pay attention to a student's record in the university. Hence the incentives to study are small, and the brightest students tend to be drawn into politics. They feel that politics is a meaningful activity in a sense that studies are not; and that political agitation and violence are a legitimate means of self-expression.

Fighting by Tradition

It is incorrect to say that all the violence is inspired by Communist or Cuban agents, Gonzalez said. Student political violence is a tradition at a university which since 1908 has always been in opposition to the governments of Venezuela.

Nevertheless, the two largest groups of student terrorists are the Communists and the Fidelista MIR (Movement of the Revolutionary Left). Though indistinguishable from the Communists in action, according to Gonzalez, the MIR derives much of its strength from those, especially from rural areas, who do not want to incur the stigma attaching to Communism--"I wouldn't want my mother to hear I was a Communist."

Despite the difficulties, some efforts are being made to control the incidence of violence, and the disruption of the curriculum. Gonzalez described "orientation classes," taught by the older and more responsible professors. In these sessions, emphasis is laid on the scholarly and research functions of the university