CARACAS, (Reuters) – Protesters battled soldiers in the streets of Caracas again yesterday as three more fatal shootings raised to 25 the death toll from a month of demonstrations against Venezuela’s socialist government.
Thousands of supporters and foes of President Nicolas Maduro took to the capital’s streets for rival rallies marking a month since the first bloodshed in the recent unrest around the South American OPEC nation.
Violence began when National Guard troops blocked opposition marchers from leaving Plaza Venezuela to head to the state ombudsman’s office. Students threw stones and petrol bombs while security forces fired teargas and turned water cannon on them.
Reuters witnesses saw dozens of people leaving injured.
In central Carabobo state, a student, a middle-aged man and an army captain were shot dead in the latest fatalities from now-daily clashes around the South American nation of 29 million people.
Opposition activists blamed armed government supporters for shooting the student near his home in Valencia city, but the state governor said the shot came from snipers among protesters.
A 42-year-old man was killed during the same disturbances, shot while painting his house, the local mayor said. In the third killing, an army captain died from a gunshot during a clash with “terrorist criminals,” government officials said.
Maduro, a 51-year-old former bus driver who was elected last year to succeed the late Hugo Chavez, has declared victory over an attempted “coup” against him and does not look in danger of being toppled.
Students, though, are vowing to keep the protests going. Protracted instability could bring more bloodshed and further weaken Venezuela’s troubled economy.
“I’m going to take drastic measures against these sectors who are attacking and killing the people,” a furious Maduro said in a speech to the nation as night fell.
