One killed as Venezuelan troops fire on protesters
CARACAS: A Venezuelan military police sergeant shot dead a protester who was attacking the perimeter of an airbase on Thursday, the interior minister said, bringing renewed scrutiny of the force used to control riots that have killed at least 76 people.
At least two soldiers shot long firearms through the fence from a distance of just a few feet at protesters who were throwing rocks, television footage showed.
One man collapsed to the ground and was carried off by other protesters. Paramedics took at least two other injured people to a hospital, a witness said.
“The sergeant used an unauthorised weapon to repel the attack, causing the death of one of assailants,” Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said on Twitter. He said the air force police sergeant faced legal proceedings.
Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have taken to the streets in recent months to protest against a clampdown on the opposition, shortages of food and medicine, and President Nicolas Maduro’s plan to overhaul the constitution.
The reaction of the security forces to provocation at marches has been in the spotlight since images showed a national guard member pointing a pistol at protesters on Monday, prompting the opposition to intensify its street campaign.
The protesters who attacked the fence outside La Carlota airbase here had earlier burned a truck and a motorcycle when security forces firing rubber bullets broke up a march destined for the attorney-general’s office.
David Jose Vallenilla, 22, died after arriving at a hospital in the Chacao municipality, where the protest happened.
Opposition lawmaker Jose Manuel Olivares said Vallenilla had been killed by the national guard firing rubber bullets at point blank range.
Olivares, whose arm was wounded in the protest, called for sit-ins on highways yesterday and protests at military bases today.
Vallenilla suffered wounds to the lungs and heart, a doctor who attended him said. The attorney general’s office said he was shot three times.
Maduro said the violence was part of a foreign-led plot to overthrow his government and criticised the opposition for fanning it.
Venezuela’s national guard is a wing of the military charged with internal public order. It mainly uses tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets to control protests that frequently escalate into riots. Reuters