Teen victim of Venezuela violence

Caracas–

A 17-year-old boy and two men died in Venezuela after being shot during antigovernment protests, prosecutors said on Tuesday, bringing to 42 the number of people killed in six weeks of unrest.

The latest deaths made the recent wave of clashes almost as deadly as the last such disturbances, in 2014, when 43 people were killed in antigovernment protests.

“They cannot go on killing and torturing people and getting away with it,” said Organisation of American States chief Luis Almagro, one of Maduro’s harshest international critics.

The UN Security Council was to discuss the crisis in Venezuela yesterday behind closed doors.

The current unrest erupted on April 1, when the opposition took to the streets in anger at what they saw as moves to strengthen elected socialist President Nicolas Maduro’s hold on power.

The government and the opposition have accused each other of sending armed groups to sow violence in the protests.

The boy was hospitalised after being shot in the head on Monday during a demonstration in the western town of Pedraza. He died early on Tuesday, the public prosecution service said in a statement.

He was at the scene of a demonstration “when, suddenly, a group of people arrived and fired several shots, wounding the young man in the head,” it said.

The department added that two other men, aged 31 and 33, had died from gunshots they suffered in demonstrations in the cities of San Antonio de los Altos and Tachira. – AFP