groups wore red shirts identifying them with a political tendency. More importantly, it was an armed and organized group that fired weapons against people". 2013 presidential election During the 2013 presidential election, Reuters said colectivos were "a key part of the government's electoral machinery" that "help[ed] sway close races and are sometimes tarred by critics as poll station thugs who intimidate opponents". The Carter Center said that during the elections, voting centers had an "intimidating climate" when motorcyclists "associated with the governing party" surrounded them. 2014 protests The Venezuelan Prison Minister, Iris Varela, said that colectivos were a "fundamental pillar in the defense of the homeland". During the 2014 Venezuelan protests against new president Nicolás Maduro, colectivos acted with impunity against the opposition protesters. When armed groups threatened to rape individuals in an apartment complex in Maracaibo, the National Guard did not intervene. The Civil Association for Citizen Control said that more than half of those killed during the protests were killed by colectivos. During the 2014 protests, armed colectivos attacked and burned a large portion of Fermín Toro University after intimidating student protesters and shooting one. The colectivos broke into the facility, looted, and damaged 40% of the university. President Maduro thanked some groups of motorcyclists for their help against what he viewed as a "fascist coup d'etat... being waged by the extreme right"; at the same time, he distanced himself from armed groups by stating that they "had no place in the revolution". Jorge Arreaza, Venezuela's vice president at the time, also praised them saying, "If there has been exemplary behavior it has been the behavior of the motorcycle colectivos that are with the Bolivarian revolution." In 2014, Arreaza promised that the government would disarm all irregular armed groups in Venezuela. The European Parliament asked the Venezuelan government to "immediately disarm and dissolve the uncontrolled armed pro-government groups and end their impunity". United States Secretary of State John Kerry accused the Venezuelan government of using "armed vigilantes" against those who opposed it. In a report titled "Punished for Protesting", Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated that government forces allowed colectivos "to attack protesters, journalists, students, or people they believed to be opponents of the government with security forces just meters away" and that "in some cases, the security forces openly collaborated with the pro-government attackers". HRW also stated that they "found compelling evidence of uniformed security forces and pro-government