Venezuela protests claim 36 lives
CARACAS: A young man died on Friday after being injured in unrest in Venezuela, an official said, bringing the toll from more than a month of violence to at least 36.
Hecder Lugo Perez, 22, died after being hit in the head by a projectile in the northwestern city of Valencia, sources at the Valles de San Diego medical clinic said.
Mass protests erupted on April 1 by demonstrators demanding elections to remove President Nicolas Maduro. Looting also broke out in Valencia.
Maduro is resisting pressure from the opposition, which blames him for an economic crisis that has led to food shortages. City Mayor Enzo Scarano confirmed Perez’s death.
Valencia has become one of the flashpoints of looting and clashes which have also seen violence at daily mass demos in the capital.
Reports said people in Valencia had begun hoarding basic foodstuffs and barricading housing developments to keep looters out.
The local chamber of commerce said at least 70 stores have been raided since Tuesday.
Maduro’s opponents called for women to march on Saturday dressed in white, a traditional show of defiance against what they brand a repressive government. The president says the crisis is a US-backed conspiracy. On Thursday, crowds of students clashed with riot police firing tear gas in the mounting crisis in this oil-rich country.
The leftist Maduro’s opponents accuse him of trying to strengthen his grip on power and delay elections by launching legal proceedings to overhaul the constitution.
Attorney-General Luisa Ortega broke ranks with the government over the political crisis.
She told the Wall Street Journal that the government should ensure people’s right to demonstrate freely, without arbitrary arrests.
“We can’t demand peaceful and legal behaviour from citizens if the state takes decisions not in accordance with the law,” the Journal quoted her as saying on Wednesday.
Venezuela has seen three attempted military coups since 1992.