Venezuela mayhem, Capriles blocked from US trip

SAN CRISTOBAL: Mobs looted shops and fought security forces overnight in Venezuela’s restive western region, where three soldiers were being charged yesterday with the fatal shooting of a man who was buying diapers for his baby.

Six weeks of anti-government unrest have resulted in at least 44 deaths, as well as hundreds of injuries and arrests in the worst turmoil of President Nicolas Maduro’s four-year rule of the South American Opec-member country.

Protesters are demanding elections to kick out the socialist government they accuse of wrecking the economy and turning Venezuela into a dictatorship. Maduro, 54, says his foes are seeking a violent coup.

One of Maduro’s main opponents, local governor Hen- rique Capriles, yesterday said his passport was confiscated when he was at the airport outside Caracas for a flight to New York, where he was to visit the UN.

“My passport is valid until 2020. What they want to do here is avoid us going to the United Nations,” Capriles said.

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, was due to meet Capriles in New York today.

“Hope (Capriles’) passport removal is not reprisal linked to planned meeting with me tomorrow,” Zeid said on Twitter.

The move comes a month after Capriles, a two-time presidential candidate seen by many as the opposition’s best chance in the presidential election scheduled for 2018, was banned from holding political office for 15 years.

Across the country near the border with Colombia, clashes and lootings raged overnight.

Manuel Castellanos, 46, was shot in the neck on Wednesday when caught in a melee while walking home with diapers he had bought for his son, witnesses said.

Earlier in the week, a 15-year-old was shot dead when out buying flour for his family’s dinner. – Reuters