Death Toll from Venezuela Demos Rises to 20
A police officer and a civilian died Thursday during clashes in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, bringing to 20 the toll from a month of anti-government demonstrations in the divided country.
The member of the National Guard succumbed in hospital to a gun shot wound to the chest while a man on a motorbike also died, State Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz told local television.
Authorities said the incident happened when a group of men on motorbikes tried to break through a barricade in the east of Caracas, where improvised blockades have multiplied in recent days.
Witnesses said the shots came from a crowd of protesters. But the president of the National Assembly Diosdado Cabello blamed "snipers" positioned on top of a building.
Street protests erupted in Venezuela on February 4 and have continued every day since in the biggest challenge yet to President Nicolas Maduro's nearly year-old, socialist-inspired government.
Public anger over rampant crime, shortages of basic goods and arrests of protesters have fueled the unrest, which Maduro charges is part of a U.S.-backed plot by "fascists" to destabilize his regime.
Source: Agence France Presse
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://naharnet.com/stories/en/121572 |