Clashes break out during 24-hour strike

Record ID: 903423

  • Title: Clashes break out during 24-hour strike
  • Date: 20th July 2017
  • Summary: CARACAS, VENEZUELA (JULY 20, 2017) (REUTERS) WATER CANNON SHOOTING WATER CLOUDS OF TEAR GAS WITH PEOPLE IN THE STREET AND POLICE IN THE BACKGROUND POLICE ON THE STREET DEMONSTRATORS THROWING TEAR GAS CANISTER AT OFFICERS PROTESTER PICKING UP SMOKING TEAR GAS CANISTER ON STREET VARIOUS OF FLAMING BARRICADES IN STREET PROTESTERS WITH MOUTHS COVERED LOOKING AT BARRICADE DEMONSTRATORS CUTTING DOWN TREE TO USE AS BARRICADE DEMONSTRATORS DRAGGING TREE DEMONSTRATORS PLACING TREE IN STREET TO USE AS BARRICADE DEMONSTRATORS PUSHING DOWN ANOTHER TREE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DEMONSTRATOR, VANESSA GONZALEZ, SAYING: "The intention of the strike is to make the national government understand that it's been enough of these 18 years of dictatorship, enough of so much repression, we don't want a constituent assembly. We want complete freedom of Venezuela." VARIOUS OF FLAMING BARRICADE DEMONSTRATOR WITH VENEZUELAN FLAG AND GAS MASK DEMONSTRATORS STANDING BEHIND ROADBLOCK ROAD WITH LITTLE TRAFFIC PEOPLE LEAVING A BANK
  • Embargoed: 3rd August 2017 18:04
  • Keywords: Nicolas Maduro opposition 24-hour national strike shutdown
  • Location: CARACAS, VENEZUELA
  • City: CARACAS, VENEZUELA
  • Country: Venezuela
  • Topics: Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA0016QIW18N
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:Clashes broke out in Caracas on Thursday (July 20) as the opposition launched a 24-hour national strike against President Nicolas Maduro to demand a presidential election and the abandonment of a plan for a new congress they fear would institute dictatorship.
    Water cannon were deployed and police launched tear gas at demonstrators scattered throughout the city erecting roadblocks.
    Many businesses closed and many private transport groups heeded the strike call, while students, neighbors and activists hauled rubbish and furniture into streets to form barriers. In a bank, patrons spontaneously broke into song, singing Venezuela's national anthem.
    Four months of anti-government unrest have killed about 100 people, injured thousands, left hundreds in jail and further damaged an economy in its fourth year of a debilitating decline.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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