VENEZUELA: Death toll rises to 25 as anti-government protesters battle riot police

Record ID: 859326

  • Title: VENEZUELA: Death toll rises to 25 as anti-government protesters battle riot police
  • Date: 13th March 2014
  • Summary: CARACAS, VENEZUELA (MARCH 12, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS SETTING BURNING BARRICADE IN STREET VARIOUS OF DAMAGE TO OFFICE BUILDING AFTER PROTESTS VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS/BURNING BARRICADE PROTESTERS PROTESTERS/WATER CANON
  • Embargoed: 28th March 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of
  • City:
  • Country: Venezuela
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAV1DO8L6KLR6DTHRII4UJD4QS
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Protesters battled soldiers in the streets of Caracas again on Wednesday (March 12) as three more fatal shootings raised to 25 the death toll from a month of demonstrations against Venezuela's socialist government.
    Thousands of supporters and foes of President Nicolas Maduro took to the capital's streets for rival rallies marking a month since the first bloodshed in the recent unrest around the South American OPEC nation.
    Trouble began when National Guard troops blocked opposition marchers from leaving Plaza Venezuela to head to the state ombudsman's office. Students threw stones and petrol bombs while security forces fired tear gas and turned water cannons on them.
    Reuters witnesses saw dozens of people leaving injured.
    Elsewhere, in central Carabobo state, a student, a middle-aged man and an army captain were shot dead in the latest fatalities from now-daily clashes around the South American nation of 29 million people.

    "Some protesters put barricades there and stoking the fire they were killed by snipers, a youth from one of these right wing groups, they shot him there and killed him," President Nicolas Maduro said about the deaths while meeting supporters at a pro-government rally in Caracas.

    "When the national guard was there carrying out their duty which they do in an impeccable way every day, they just killed a young captain of the national guard," he added.
    Opposition activists blamed armed government supporters for shooting the student near his home in Valencia city, but the state governor said the shot came from snipers among protesters.
    A 42-year-old man died during the same disturbances, shot while painting his house, the local mayor said. In the third killing, an army captain died from a gunshot during a clash with "terrorist criminals", government officials said.
    Maduro's government has declared victory over an attempted "coup" against the 51-year-old former bus driver who won election last year to succeed the late Hugo Chavez.
    Student radicals have vowed to continue the "Venezuelan Spring" protests. But despite the bloodshed and drag the actions have had on the county's troubled economy, Maduro appears to be in little danger of being toppled.
    In the first deaths on Feb. 12, two opposition supporters and a pro-government activist were shot dead in Caracas, galvanizing the fledgling protest movement and sparking clashes in Caracas and some western Andean cities.
    The 25 people killed include victims on both sides.
    Of the more than 1,300 people arrested since anti-government demonstrations began at the start of February, 92 are still behind bars, according to the government.
    Those held include 14 security officials, some of whom are implicated in the deaths of two of those shot in the Feb. 12 rallies. More than 300 people have been injured in the unrest.
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