Death toll from unrest reaches 29
CARACAS: Venezuelan security forces fired scores of tear gas volleys and turned water cannons on rockthrowing protesters on a bridge in Caracas yesterday as the death toll from this month’s antigovernment unrest hit at least 29.
A 20yearold male demonstrator died in the latest clashes in the capital after being hit by a gas canister, officials of the city’s eastern Chacao district said.
Authorities also announced two new fatalities from clashes earlier this week: a 22yearold who received various gunshot wounds at a protest in the city of Valencia, and a 28yearold government supporter shot in the stomach in Tachira state.
The wave of protests since early April against socialist President Nicolas Maduro have sparked Venezuela’s worst violence since 2014. Demonstrators want elections to end the socialists’ twodecade rule, but the South American nation’s brutal economic crisis is also fuelling anger.
‘‘I want everything to end: the hunger, the murders, the corruption, all the ills we are suffering. We have to stay in the street until there is change. We are the majority,’’ said student Ricardo Ropero (20) at a march in Caracas.
Redshirted supporters of Maduro, the 54yearold former bus driver who succeeded Hugo Chavez in 2013, also rallied on the streets of the capital, punching their fists in the air and denouncing opposition ‘‘terrorists’’.
Maduro says his foes are seeking a violent coup, with US connivance, like a shortlived 2002 putsch against Chavez.
Opposition leaders accuse Maduro of seizing dictatorial powers and unleashing repression on peaceful protesters, but the opposition’s ranks also include groups of youths who hunt for trouble, hurling Molotov cocktails or burning property.
As well as wanting a general election, Maduro’s opponents are demanding the release of jailed activists, humanitarian aid to help offset shortages of food and medicine, and autonomy for the oppositionled legislature.
International pressure on Maduro has grown too, with 19 members of the 34nation Organisation of American States (OAS) voting yesterday to hold a special meeting of foreign ministers to discuss the Venezuelan crisis.
Maduro narrowly won election in 2013 against opposition leader Henrique Capriles, but the economic crisis has battered his public approval ratings since then.
He has called for local state elections, postponed from 2016, to be held soon, but has shown no sign of supporting an early presidential election. The opposition now has majority support and the ruling Socialists would probably lose any vote.
During this month’s protests, more than 1500 people have been arrested and 800 are still detained, according to rights group Penal Forum. — Reuters