Draft:Yendri Velásquez
Venezuelan LGBT rights activist (born c. 1993)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yendri Omar Velásquez (c. 1993)[1] is a Venezuelan LGBT rights activist. He has served as coordinator of the Venezuelan Observatory of LGBTIQ+ Violence (Observatorio Venezolano de Violencia LGBTIQ+), a non-governmental organization dedicated to documenting and denouncing discrimination against the LGBT community in the country.[2][3][4]
Yendri Velásquez | |
|---|---|
Yendri Omar Velásquez | |
 | |
| Born | c. 1993 |
| Occupation | Activist |
| Known for | LGBT rights advocacy in Venezuela; survivor of the 2025 Bogotá attack |
Activism
In an interview with El Diario, Velásquez said that one of the events that motivated him to become an activist was the first hate-motivated case he learned of in his country: in 2011 or 2012 in Maracay, Aragua state, a young man was tied to a post, doused in petrol and set on fire. The attackers reportedly stated that "mariquitos" (a Spanish slur for gay men) were not welcome in that area. The young man survived but sustained serious injuries.[1]
As director of the Venezuelan Observatory of LGBTIQ+ Violence, Velásquez has documented and denounced cases of discrimination in the country, such as the 2023 raid on the Avalon Club in Valencia,[5] the 2024 arrest of Marcos Caraballo over a photo session in front of the Basilica of Our Lady of Chiquinquirá,[6] and the reprimand of a same-sex couple at the Sambil shopping centre in Caracas for holding hands.[3]
On 4 August 2024, following the presidential election, Velásquez was detained for six hours at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía as he attempted to board a flight to Geneva to take part in a United Nations meeting on discrimination.[7][8] The Venezuelan government subsequently annulled his passport. Velásquez then went into exile and applied for refugee status in Colombia. As of October 2025, he had not received a response to the application.[9][10]
2025 Bogotá attack
On 13 October 2025, Velásquez was the victim of an attack in Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, together with political consultant Luis Peche. Both were shot and taken to the Reina Sofía Hospital. Up to that point, neither had reported receiving threats while in Colombia. President Gustavo Petro attributed responsibility for the attack to organized crime, while Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado stated that the two men were "persecuted by the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro".[9][10][11]