Young protester shot in the head amid continuation of demonstrations that brand President Nicolás Maduro a dictator and demand elections

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A 20-year-old Venezuelan protester has died after being shot in the head, authorities said, taking the death toll from a month of anti-government unrest to at least 37.



Hecder Lugo was killed during fighting between demonstrators and security forces in Valencia on Thursday that also injured four others, the local opposition mayor, Enzo Scarano, said in a series of tweets.

The state prosecutor’s office, which keeps an official count of deaths since protests began against the Socialist president, Nicolás Maduro, in early April, confirmed he died after being shot in a protest.

Another 717 people have been injured and 152 are still in jail from the hundreds rounded up in widespread unrest across the country, according to the office’s latest tally.

There has been violence and widespread looting this week in Valencia, a once bustling industrial hub two hours from the capital by road.

In an incident loaded with symbolism, a group of young men destroyed a statue of the late leader Hugo Chávez in the oil-producing Zulia state, according to videos circulating on social media on Friday evening.

'Everything is in chaos': night of violence reveals depths of Venezuela crisis Read more

Footage shows the statue, which depicts Chávez saluting and wearing a sash, being yanked down to cheers in a public plaza before it is bashed into a sidewalk and then the road as onlookers swear at the leftist, who died in 2013 from cancer.

“Students destroyed this statue of Chávez. They accuse him, correctly, of destroying their future,” the opposition lawmaker Carlos Valero said about the incident, which was also reported in local media. Reuters was unable to independently confirm it.

JMP (@jesunym) Derrumbe d la estatua d Chávez en Villa del Rosario edo Zulia @ObservadBinario @hcapriles @HaslerIglesias @trafficMcbo @MariaCorinaYA pic.twitter.com/1YfN03z4Rg

Venezuela’s opposition, which now enjoys majority support after being in the shadow of the ruling Socialist party since Chávez’s 1998 election win, says his successor, Maduro, has become a dictator and wrecked the economy.

Vowing to stay in the streets for as long as necessary, opposition leaders announced nationwide women’s marches for Saturday with the biggest planned for the capital, Caracas.

Opposition lawmakers briefly unfurled a banner on Friday at the National Assembly, where they won a majority in 2015 thanks to voter ire over the recession, saying “Maduro Dictator”.

The president says they are seeking a violent coup with US support and is setting up a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution and possibly replace the existing legislature.

“President Maduro has made a big call to national dialogue,” the foreign minister, Delcy Rodríguez, told diplomats at a meeting on Friday, showing them images of violence and vandalism on the streets caused by youths at the front of protests.

“They are not peaceful. The opposition leaders share big responsibility in these acts of extremism and vandalism.”

Opposition protests have often started peacefully but degenerated into violence when security forces block marchers and masked youths fight them with stones, Molotov cocktails and fireworks shot from pipes turned into homemade mortars.



Fatalities have included supporters of both sides, bystanders and members of the security forces.

Gunshot wounds have been the most common cause of deaths.

The opposition is boycotting Maduro’s constituent assembly process, saying it is a ploy to keep him in power by setting up a body with mechanisms to ensure a government majority.

Having failed to trigger a referendum on his rule last year, the opposition is calling for delayed elections of state governors to be held as soon as possible, and for the next presidential election, slated for 2018, to be brought forward.

Polls show the ruling Socialists would badly lose any conventional vote due to four years of economic crisis that has led to debilitating food and medicine shortages.

While Maduro says opposition ranks include armed hoodlums, activists accuse the security forces of using excessive force, including firing teargas canisters directly at people and allowing pro-government gangs to terrorise demonstrators.

The opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, said on Friday that 85 members of the military in Caracas had been arrested for opposition “repression”, adding that their relatives had asked him to publicise the detentions.

Defence minister Vladimir Padrino’s cousin, Ernesto Padrino, wrote to him in an open letter: “Cousin, it’s enough!” He was following in the footsteps of the state human rights ombudsman’s son, who surprised the country by publishing a video begging his father to “end the injustice”.

“Eighty per cent of Venezuelans want elections as a way out of our nation’s grave economic and political crisis,” wrote Ernesto Padrino on Facebook.

“Sooner or later, the Venezuelan people will make you pay.” </s> Caracas - A fifth person died Thursday after being shot during protests against the Venezuelan government, officials said, as tension mounted in a political crisis driven by food shortages.

The 32-year-old man died from a gunshot wound suffered during clashes on Tuesday night in the northwestern town of Cabudare, a spokesperson for the public prosecution service who asked not to be named told AFP.

Socialist President Nicolas Maduro is fighting off efforts to oust him as Venezuela, once a booming oil exporting nation, struggles with shortages of food and medicine.

Dozens of people have been injured and more than 100 arrested since April 6, according to authorities.

Riot police in various cities have fired tear gas and water cannon at stone-throwing demonstrators.

Opposition lawmaker Alfonso Marquina also reported the man's death on Twitter, identifying him as Antonio Gruseny Calderon.

Marquina called him "another victim of the dictatorship."

"My solidarity and condolences for all his relatives and friends. This must not go unpunished," he wrote.

Marquina and officials earlier said a 13-year-old boy was shot dead in protests on Tuesday in the western city of Barquisimeto, in Lara state.

Marquina blamed that killing on so-called "colectivos," armed supporters of the government who the opposition says commit violence during demonstrations.

A 36-year-old man was killed the same night in Barquisimeto, prosecutors said.

Two 19-year-old students were shot by police in earlier unrest, one on April 6 and one on April 11, according to authorities.

Also on Thursday, opposition lawmaker Jose Manuel Olivares said police fired tear gas "point-blank" at demonstrators in the state of Vargas.

"If they think they will scare us that way they are wrong. We will stay in the street!" he wrote on Twitter.

Two other demonstrations took place in Caracas and one in the country's second city, Maracaibo, without incidents, according to media reports.

On Wednesday, scuffles broke out between government supporters and opponents during a Holy Week procession at the Santa Teresa church in central Caracas.

The next major organised rallies called by opposition leaders are set for Wednesday next week.

That is expected to be the next big showdown in an increasingly fraught crisis that has raised international concerns for Venezuela's stability.

The opposition is demanding the authorities set a date for postponed regional elections.

It is also furious over moves to limit the powers of the legislature and ban senior opposition leader Henrique Capriles from politics.

Those moves have raised international condemnation including from the United States and the European Union.

Maduro has resisted opposition efforts to hold a referendum on removing him, vowing to continue the "socialist revolution" launched by his late predecessor Hugo Chavez.

Maduro says the economic crisis is the result of what he calls a US-backed capitalist conspiracy. </s> Amid shortages of food and medicine, thousands take to Caracas streets as campaign to topple the president turns deadly.

Fresh clashes have erupted between police and protesters rallying against the Venezuelan government as a fifth person reportedly dies after being shot during earlier unrest.

Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets in eastern Caracas amid a tropical downpour on Thursday to support a protest movement that appears to be gaining steam even as it turns more deadly.

Venezuela officials confirmed later in the day that a fifth person had died in the wave of anti-government protests now entering its third week.

The public prosecutor's office says it will investigate the death of Miguel Colmenares, 36.

He was shot at during a protest in the central city of Barquisimeto on Tuesday.

Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela's socialist president, is fighting off efforts to topple him as Venezuela struggles with shortages of food and medicine.

Dozens of people have been injured and more than 100 arrested over the past week in clashes in various cities, according to authorities.

Alfonso Marquina, an opposition politician, on Twitter identified the latest death as Antonio Gruseny Calderon and called him "another victim of the dictatorship".

Marquina and officials earlier said a 13-year-old boy was shot dead in protests on Tuesday in Barquisimeto.

Marquina blamed that killing on so-called colectivos, armed supporters of the government whom the opposition accuses of attacking them during demonstrations.

A 36-year-old man was killed the same night in Barquisimeto, prosecutors said.

Two 19-year-old students were shot by police in earlier unrest, one on April 6 and one on April 11, according to authorities.

Also on Thursday, Jose Manuel Olivares, another opposition legislator, said police fired tear gas "point-blank" at demonstrators in the state of Vargas.

"If they think they will scare us that way they are wrong. We will stay in the street!" he wrote on Twitter.

While demonstrations are often held in middle-class neighbourhoods, this most recent wave of unrest for the first time has prompted protests in the slums that have historically been bastions of support for the socialist revolution launched nearly two decades ago by Hugo Chavez, the late president. </s> CARACAS, VENEZUELA—Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets in wealthy eastern Caracas Thursday amid a tropical downpour to support a protest movement that is gaining steam even as it turns more deadly.

Venezuela officials confirmed earlier in the day that a fifth person had died in the wave of anti-government protests now entering its third week.

The public prosecutor’s office says it will investigate the death of 36-year-old Miguel Colmenares. He was shot at a protest in the central city of Barquisimeto on Tuesday.

Read more:Venezuelans rally to oppose President Maduro as officials attempt to break up crowd

Gruseny Calderon was killed during the same protest. Congressman Alfonso Marquina says the 32-year-old protester was injured by rubber bullets that pierced his lung and liver. </s> CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The Latest on the protests and counter demonstrations in Venezuela (all times local):

Venezuelan Interior Minister Nestor Reverol is blaming an opposition party for the killing of a 23-year-old woman amid ongoing protests in the South American country.

Reverol said Thursday that Paola Ramirez was killed on Wednesday by a member of Vente Venezuela, a party led by high-profile opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.

Vente Venezuela did not immediately respond to the accusation. Machado said the government was trying to blame her party for the killing of a young woman that the administration itself was responsible for.

Ramirez was killed over the past day in the restive western border city of San Cristobal amid protests that also left two others dead — a teenage boy reportedly on his way to a soccer match with friends, and a National Guard officer whose unit was attacked.

The minister said a preliminary investigation suggests that the Vente Venezuela attack on Ramirez was planned in advance.

San Cristobal Mayor Patricia Gutierrez has said that Ramirez was shot to death by people who appeared to be government supporters.

The spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says that the organization is “concerned” about what’s happening in Venezuela and urges that “all efforts be made to lower tensions and prevent further clashes.”

A statement issued Thursday by spokesman Stephane Dujarric calls on the Venezuelan government and opposition to “engage sincerely to reactivate dialogue efforts, ” especially on issues such as the balance of power among branches of government, the electoral calendar, human rights, truth and justice and the country’s socio-economic situation.”

Tens of thousands of people are pouring into the main thoroughfares of Caracas in the latest anti-government demonstration in the Venezuelan capital.

Just minutes after they started on Thursday, police deployed tear gas in an effort to slow their advance.

Amid a sea of Venezuelan flags the marchers shouted: “Who are we?”

“What do we want?” the marchers asked.

Wilfredo Coronel, a 42-year-old priest, held up a rosary in his right hand.

He accused the government of violating the people’s right to live, food and free expression and “it’s necessary that we recover those spaces.

The European Union is calling for an investigation into the deaths and other violence during anti-government demonstrations in Venezuela and for those responsible to be held accountable.

The EU’s executive commission said Thursday that it was “saddened” by the deaths of two young people during Wednesday’s protests. A third person, a National Guard sergeant, was killed and a colonel was injured when their squad was attacked with gunfire while trying to control disturbances in a city near Caracas.

Eight people have died so far in demonstrations over the past several weeks.

The European Commission says: “All concerned, including members of the security forces, have a responsibility to act in full compliance with the rule of law and human rights.”

The bloc urged Venezuelans “to come together to de-escalate the situation and find democratic solutions.”

General Motors has stopped doing business in Venezuela after authorities took control of its only factory there in what GM called an illegal judicial seizure of its assets.

The plant was confiscated on Wednesday as anti-government protesters clashed with authorities in a country that is roiling in economic troubles such as food shortages and triple-digit inflation.

The Detroit automaker said in a statement Thursday that other assets such as vehicles were taken from the plant, causing irreparable damage to the company.

GM says the plant was taken in disregard of its right to due process. The company says it will defend itself legally and that it’s confident that justice eventually will prevail.

GM has about 2,700 workers in the troubled country, where it’s been the market leader for over 35 years.

Authorities say a third person has died overnight in the ongoing protests in Venezuela.

The chief prosecutor’s office reported Thursday that a National Guard sergeant was killed and a colonel injured when their squad was attacked with gunfire while trying to control disturbances in a city near Caracas.

The sergeant was the third person reported killed in the protests over the past day and the eighth person to die in demonstrations over the past several weeks. The other two people killed amid Wednesday’s demonstrations included a teenager who was heading to a soccer match with friends. Both of those other two deaths were blamed on pro-government groups.

Venezuela’s opposition is looking to keep up pressure on President Nicolas Maduro by taking to the streets again Thursday, a day after hundreds were arrested in the biggest anti-government demonstrations in years. </s> Anti-government protesters march with a banner that reads in Spanish "Freedom without fear" along a highway in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, April 19, 2017. Tens of thousands of opponents of President Nicolas Maduro flooded the streets of Caracas in what's been dubbed the "mother of all marches" against the embattled president. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The latest on opposition and pro-government marches in Venezuela (all times local):

The U.S. secretary of state says the Trump administration is concerned about the political turmoil in Venezuela and feels socialist President Nicolas Maduro is trying to squash the voice of his opponents.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tells reporters at the State Department that the U.S. is "concerned that the government of Maduro is violating its own constitution and is not allowing the opposition to have their voices heard." He says Venezuela's government is not allowing the opposition "to organize in ways that expresses the views of the Venezuelan people."

Tillerson says the U.S. is watching the situation closely and is working with others, particularly through the Organization of American States, to communicate its concerns to Venezuela.

Authorities say a second protester has been killed in anti-government protests taking place across Venezuela.

The 23-year-old woman identified as Paola Ramirez was killed by gunfire from pro-government groups circling protesters in the western city of San Cristobal, the town's mayor told The Associated Press. There were no other details immediately available.

Earlier, a 17-year-old was pronounced dead at a Caracas hospital after being shot in the head while walking near a protest.

A Venezuelan teenager who was shot in the head near anti-government protests in the capital has died.

Miguel Salomon is president of the Clinicas Caracas hospital. He says the boy died in the operating room as surgeons attempted to save his life.

Venezuela's chief prosecutor said she is investigating the Wednesday shooting incident amid conflicting reports over the cause of death. Some opponents of President Nicolas Maduro say armed pro-government militias opened gunfire on a crowd of protesters, bu top officials say the boy named Carlos Moreno was assaulted while walking home from a soccer game.

There have been five other deaths nationwide tied to protests that began in early April after the Supreme Court gutted the opposition-controlled congress of its last remaining powers.

Venezuela has reiterated to the Organization of American States that it does not recognize the hemispheric group's resolution saying the South American country had violated constitutional order.

Venezuelan Ambassador Samuel Moncada spoke as the opposition and government supporters held dueling marches in Caracas.

Moncada told members of the Washington-based organization that the resolution by the OAS on April 3 was to blame for the violence that occurred at demonstrations in the last two weeks.

The ambassador also accused the United States and OAS Secretary-General Luis Almagro of encouraging an overthrow of Venezuela's socialist government, echoing an earlier accusation by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

A senior diplomatic official for the Western Hemisphere was in Miami condemning the government of Venezuela as the opposition in the South American nation flooded into the streets for a massive demonstration.

Organization of American States Secretary General Luis Almagro told an audience at an economic forum that Venezuela has "deteriorated into a full-scale dictatorship." He said Venezuelans have been denied basic human rights and that the government of President Nicolas Maduro is only concerned with maintaining its power.

Almagro said the OAS would continue to seek a restoration of democracy.

He spoke Wednesday at the 7th World Strategic Forum at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables.

The OAS recently issued a strong rebuke to Venezuela for the slide toward militarism. Maduro said the hemispheric organization was persecuting his country.

Marchers in the opposition demonstration in Caracas included Liliana Machuca, who earns about $20 a month holding two jobs teaching literature.

Her face was covered in a white substance to protect herself from the nauseous effects of what she expects will be another day of dodging tear gas canisters.

Machuca said during Wednesday's march says she doesn't expect change overnight, but believes that protesting is her only option after all the abuses she says have been committed by the government.

She says: "This is like a chess game and each side is moving whatever pieces they can. ..... we'll see who tires out first." A short block away from where the opposition was gathering, a sea of red-shirted government supporters marched by calmly, some dancing to a salsa band. They included state workers like Leidy Marquez, who was bused in from Tachira state on the other side of teh country. Venezuelan National Guard members are deploying tear gas on an opposition march in western Caracas in an effort to disperse demonstrators. The marchers who have flooded some major streets are refusing to budge. Opponents of President Nicolas Maduro called on Venezuelans to take to the streets on Wednesday for what they dubbed the "mother of all marches" against the embattled socialist leader. Government supporters are holding their own counter demonstration. Rodriguez spoke Wednesday during a visit to the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, referring to dueling opposition and pro-government marches being held the same day in the South American country. The Cuban official notes that Venezuela is a sovereign state with a democratically elected government. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused the U.S. State Department of encouraging Venezuelan opponents to attempting a government overthrow. American officials have rejected such charges in the past. Opponents of President Nicolas Maduro have called on Venezuelans to take to the streets for what they've dubbed the "mother of all marches" against the embattled socialist leader. Demonstrators are converging from 26 different points spread across the capital to attempt to march downtown to the Ombudsman's office. It's a route tens of thousands of angry protesters have attempted a half-dozen times in the past few weeks only to find their progress blocked by light-armored vehicles and a curtain of tear gas and rubber bullets fired by riot police officers. At least five deaths have been blamed on the strong-armed response to protests that were triggered by the government-stacked Supreme Court's decision three weeks ago to strip the opposition-controlled congress of its last remaining powers. </s> A 17-year-old boy died after being shot Wednesday during massive protests against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the sixth person killed this month in a mounting political crisis.

As the latest clashes broke out in the capital with riot police firing tear gas to push back stone-throwing demonstrators, an unidentified man on a motorcycle shot the boy in the head, witnesses said.

Violence erupted when thousands of opposition protesters tried to march on central Caracas, a pro-government bastion where red-clad Maduro supporters were massing for a counter-demonstration.

The marchers were forced back by lines of soldiers and police deployed to contain what the opposition vowed would be the "mother of all protests."

The 17-year-old was shot by motorcycle-riding gunmen who also threw tear gas canisters into a crowd of protesters, Amadeo Leiva, head of the Clinicas Caracas Hospital which treated him, told AFP.

Prosecutors said they had opened an investigation.

The opposition has repeatedly accused the government of sending groups of armed thugs to attack protesters. The security forces do nothing to stop them and themselves repress peaceful protesters, opponents say.

Authorities had already reported five other people killed, including a boy of 13, in protests around the country earlier this month.

This is the largest day of demonstrations in more than two weeks of violent protests that have seen more than 200 arrested.

Moves by Maduro to tighten his grip on power have escalated the country's political and economic crisis.

Pressure on the leftist leader has been mounting since 2014, as falling prices for Venezuela's crucial oil exports have aggravated an economic crisis, creating severe shortages of food and medicine in the state-led economy.

The crisis escalated on March 30, when the Supreme Court tried to take over the powers of the National Assembly, the only lever of government Maduro and his allies do not control.

The court partly backtracked after an international outcry, but the tension only increased when authorities slapped a political ban on opposition leader Henrique Capriles on April 7.

Those events have galvanized the often divided opposition in its efforts to force Maduro from power.

"We have to end this dictatorship. We're fed up. We want elections to get Maduro out, because he's destroyed this country," said protester Ingrid Chacon, a 54-year-old secretary.

The president in turn has urged his supporters, the military, and civilian militias to defend the socialist "revolution" launched by his predecessor Hugo Chavez in 1999.

The center-right opposition has called for the military -- a pillar of Maduro's power -- to abandon him.

"It is the moment for the armed forces to demonstrate that they are with the constitution and with the people," legislative speaker Julio Borges said Tuesday.

But the defense minister, General Vladimir Padrino Lopez, has pledged the army's "unconditional loyalty," while Maduro blasted Borges for inciting a "coup."

The president has sought to rally his troops this week, sending the army into the streets and ordering pro-government militias to be expanded to half a million members, "each with a rifle."

"The hour of combat has arrived," Maduro said.

On Tuesday night he activated a military, police and civilian operation called the "Zamora Plan" aimed at combatting a supposed coup attempt -- which the president says is being orchestrated by Venezuela's opposition and the United States.

In Latin America, where other governments are increasingly alarmed by Venezuela's instability, 11 countries including Brazil, Mexico and Chile issued a statement Monday condemning the deaths of protesters and urging the security forces to show restraint.

US State Department spokesman Mark Toner echoed that call, urging the security forces to "protect, not prevent, peaceful demonstrations."

Maduro, speaking at a meeting with high-ranking political and military officials Tuesday, denounced that as a "green light (for) a coup."

According to a survey by pollster Venebarometro, seven in 10 Venezuelans disapprove of Maduro, whose term does not end until 2019. </s> At least three people were killed in Venezuela when clashes broke out during anti-government protests described by opposition leaders as the “mother of all marches.”

Supporters of President Nicolas Maduro also held a counter rally Wednesday as opposition marchers gathered in the streets.

An hour into the march in Caracas, a 17-year-old boy was shot in the head, according to the Venezuela’s public ministry, which said it had started investigating the incident. The teenager, later identified as Carlos Moreno, died while undergoing surgery, a hospital representative told CNN.

Moreno’s sister, Alejandra, said Carlos studied economics at Venezuelan Central University in Caracas. Instead of joining the marches, she said, he was on the way to play soccer.

Video posted on social media showed a young man on the ground in the San Bernardino neighborhood — a pool of blood near his head — surrounded by marchers. A woman is heard yelling, “They’ve killed him.”

The ministry said it was also investigating the Wednesday afternoon shooting death of Paola Andreina Ramírez Gómez, 23, in plaza San Carlos in San Cristóbal, Tachira state.

Jorban Contreras, a paramedic and director of the civil protection unit in Tachira, said the woman lost a lot of blood and was already dead from a gunshot wound to her chest when he arrived.

In a third death, Venezuelan National Guard Sgt. Niumar Jose San Clemente Barrios was fatally shot Wednesday night, said the public prosecutor’s office and Venezuela’s top human rights official, ombudsman Tarek William Saab. A second guardsman was wounded by a bullet, the officials said. Both were shot during “violent protests” in the municipality of Los Salias, south of the nation’s capital, according to Saab.

The public prosecutor’s office has called for an investigation into the shooting.

Maduro: Don’t complain when law comes after you

Maduro, who along with his supporters called for the countermarch, had deployed the Venezuelan armed forces to the streets on Sunday night amid rising tensions.

He gave a fiery speech on Wednesday, accusing the opposition leaders of inciting violence. He called out the President of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, Julio Borges, saying “You are the head of the coup. Later, don’t complain when the law comes after you.”

Wednesday’s marches underscored the widening political rifts in the country, where the opposition has accused Maduro of creating a dictatorship in the last few years. The government has repeatedly blocked any attempts by the opposition to oust Maduro from power by a referendum vote. It has also delayed local and state elections.

The opposition called for another march on Thursday, using the same strategy from the day before when protesters started their march at 26 different points throughout Caracas and converged at the office of the ombudsman, the government’s top human rights official.

Government supporters and security forces on Wednesday succeeded in blocking marchers from reaching certain parts of the city, according to observers. Throughout the day, water cannons and tear gas canisters were unleashed on opposition marchers.

Video posted on social media showed marchers — some covering their faces — crossing the narrow Guaire River in the nation’s capital in attempts to elude tear gas blasts.

The video was posted by David Smolansky, mayor of the municipality of El Hatillo and an opposition leader.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson expressed concerns to reporters Wednesday that the “government of Maduro is violating its own constitution and is not allowing the opposition to have their voices heard, nor allowing them to organize in a way that expresses the views of the Venezuelan people.”

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said via Twitter on Wednesday that he had directed his country’s exterior ministry to ask the UN Secretary General to address what he called the “worrying militarization of Venezuelan society.”

What the opposition wants

The last vote held in Venezuela, the parliamentary election of 2015, gave the opposition a majority. Critics say any elections since have been delayed because Maduro is afraid of the outcome.

Then, on March 29, the Venezuelan Supreme Court dissolved the Parliament, transferring all legislative powers to itself. By doing away with the opposition-controlled legislative branch, the move effectively meant the remaining two branches of Venezuelan government were controlled by the ruling United Socialist Party. The opposition was outraged and called the move a coup. The decision was reversed three days later, but by that time protests had already erupted.

The protests have been bloody. Six people have died and countless others, many journalists, have been injured.

The opposition call became even stronger when, on April 7, the government notified main opposition leader Henrique Capriles that he had been banned from doing any political work for 15 years. The 44-year-old governor, who has run for president twice, said the government was again acting like a dictatorship.

Maduro, 54, has been defiant. Instead of taking steps to reduce tensions with the opposition, he has taken a confrontational tone with members of the opposition and protesters, whom he calls “vandals and terrorists.”

Opposition leaders have called for the National Assembly’s powers to be fully restored, for all the political prisoners to be freed, for a humanitarian corridor to be opened and for the stalled elections to take place.

Unemployment, meanwhile, is set to surpass 25% this year, possibly on its way to 28% next year. It was at 7.4% in 2015.

Venezuela’s economy shrank 18% last year, its third year of recession. It is expected to be in the red this year and next.

The country’s food shortages have become severe in the last couple of years. Venezuelans have endured weeks, in some cases months, without basics like milk, eggs, flour, soap and toilet paper.

When there is food and water on the shelves, prices are so high that few Venezuelans can afford it. Many have taken to eating out of the trash.

Medicine also remains in short supply. Venezuelans hunt for penicillin and other remedies at pharmacies everywhere, often without success. The country’s public hospitals have fallen apart, causing people, including infants, to die because of the scarcity of basic medical care.

Venezuela recently asked the United Nations for help to relieve serious shortages of medicines in the country. </s> Students held demonstrations across Caracas today as a two-month-old protest movement that shows no signs of letting up claimed more lives. At the Central University of Venezuela, soldiers bathed hundreds of student protesters in tear gas. Many of the protesters stayed put, and medics in gas masks attended to others with bloodied faces and limbs.

Students from another university marched peacefully to deliver a petition to the office of the country’s Catholic bishops, asking the Pope to speak out against the violence and the government’s steps toward authoritarianism.

Gunfire erupted at a student gathering in El Tigre, a city southeast of Caracas, leaving Juan Lopez, 33, dead and three others injured, according to the chief prosecutor’s office.

According to preliminary reports, an assailant fired at Lopez toward the end of the meeting and then fled on a motorcycle. Lopez was the president of a university federation. The student leader’s death brought the number of people killed in Venezuela’s ongoing political turmoil to at least 37.

Earlier today, authorities announced that a 38-year-old police officer in the central state of Carabobo had died of his injuries after being shot during a Wednesday protest that had hundreds of thousands of people on the street nationwide. A 17 year-old was also killed during the day’s protests.

Hundreds more have been wounded – no small matter in a country with crippling medical shortages. And more than 1,000 have been arrested.

Protesters are demanding immediate presidential elections. President Nicolas Maduro accuses the opposition of attempting a coup, and has responded with an initiative to rewrite the constitution.

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A young man is shot dead in Valencia, Carabobo, amid ongoing protests against the government of Nicolás Maduro. Protesters tear down a statue of former President Hugo Chávez in Rosario de Perijá.