CARACAS, Venezuela - The director of a medical center in Venezuela's capital says doctors are treating 50 patients injured during street skirmishes.

Salud Chacao director Maggia Santi said Tuesday that 30 of those injured were shot with rubber bullets. Another 16 sustained bodily trauma, three reported difficulty breathing and one was shot with a firearm.

She said doctors have sufficient supplies to treat the injured, in part due to recent donations by organizations including the Red Cross.

Protesters are clashing with forces loyal to President Nicolás Maduro after opposition leader Juan Guaidó called for a military uprising and mass demonstration.

The individual injured by gunfire is reported to be stable. The protests continued after Leopoldo López, the leader of the opposition, found refuge at the Chilean diplomatic residence in Caracas.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> Injured demonstrators take cover at the Colombian border

Injured demonstrators take cover at the Colombian border

AT LEAST TWO people have died after an attempt to get humanitarian aid into Venezuela descended into deadly chaos as President Nicolas Maduro’s security forces fired on demonstrators.

The clashes with security forces left more than 300 people wounded at various border crossings.

The country is gripped by a humanitarian crisis that has seen poverty soar during a prolonged recession and hyperinflation.

Despite a blockade by Maduro, opposition leader Juan Guaido had set yesterday as a deadline for the delivery of food and medical aid stockpiled in Colombia and Brazil. Aid is also being held on the Caribbean island of Curacao.

Humanitarian aid has become the centerpiece of the standoff between Maduro and Guaido, the 35-year-old leader of Venezuela’s National Assembly who declared himself interim president exactly one month ago.

Demonstrators throw stones at the international bridge at Cucuta Source: Rafael Hernandez/dpa via PA Images

Since dawn, protesters in the border towns of Urena and San Antonio were held at bay by the Venezuelan National Guard firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

Gunshots could be heard in the streets of Urena during hours of rioting.

Civil defence officials in Colombia said at least 285 people had been injured in clashes at border bridge crossings. Colombia also ordered aid trucks to return from the border after the violence.

Most were Venezuelan nationals who were trying to cross with aid parcels when they were pushed back by Venezuelan forces.

The most serious incident came hundreds of kilometres away, at a crossing point on the southern border with Brazil where the killings took place. A 14-year-old boy was among those killed.

Another 31 people were wounded when troops blocking the entry of aid opened fire on civilians hoping to collect it, according to rights group Foro Penal.

Officers of the Venezuela's Bolivarian National Police take cover behind their shields, from a shower of rocks Source: Fernando Vergara via PA Images

Guaido, who was in Cucuta, Colombia coordinating the aid operation, told reporters:

Maduro’s supporters set on fire two trucks loaded with aid driven through barricades on a border bridge.

Another two trucks carrying aid sent by Brazil to Venezuela returned to a Brazilian city after Venezuelan troops barred them from crossing for several hours.

Demonstrators push a bus that was torched during clashes with the Bolivarian National Guard in Urena, Venezuela Source: AP/PA Images

A number of National Guard troops took advantage of the chaos and abandoned their posts to cross into Colombia.

At least 60 members of the armed forces had deserted the “Maduro dictatorship” by last night, according to Colombia’s immigration service.

Guaido, who has been recognised as interim leader by more than 50 countries, said they would be welcomed and not treated as traitors.

Yesterday, Guaido formally launched a long-planned distribution operation at a warehouse at the Tienditas border bridge in Cucuta.

Guaido had vowed humanitarian aid would enter his country despite the blockade.

Juan Guaido speaking at an event on Wednesday Source: Boris Vergara/dpa via PA Images

Socialist leader Maduro has rejected the aid, which he’s dismissed as a show and pretext for a US invasion.

Angered by Colombia’s support for Guaido, Maduro announced Venezuela was severing diplomatic ties with Bogota, and gave Colombian diplomats 24 hours to leave the country.

He told a rally of his supporters in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas:

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the US “will take action” as be condemned the violence.

As many as 300,000 Venezuelans are in dire need of food and medicine after years of shortages and malnutrition, according to Guaido, who has accused Maduro of rigging his re-election and is demanding a new vote. </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> The standoff for humanitarian aid for Venezuela turned deadly Friday when a woman of an indigenous group was killed and another dozen injured after clashes with security forces at a border town with Brazil.

The victim was identified as Zoraida Rodriguez, a member of the Pemon ethnic group that clashed with the Venezuela National Guard and army, who were moving tanks near the border town of Gran Sabana, Mayor Emiliano Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said that while soldiers fired rubber bullets and tear gas, Rodriguez was shot dead during the clashes. The injured people were taken for medical treatment.

There was no immediate information on the condition of the injured, though television news showed images of three men on gurneys being treated for bloody wounds.

GUAIDO'S TRUCKS CLASH WITH MADURO'S MILITARY IN ATTEMPT TO FORCE AID INTO VENEZUELA

The violence came a day after embattled President Nicolas Maduro ordered the border with Brazil closed to prevent aid from neighboring countries to enter Venezuela. He also blocked air and sea travel between Venezuela and the nearby Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao, where the first cargo of relief supplies arrived earlier that day.

Maduro denies any humanitarian crisis exists, and the plan to bring in aid is one of the most ambitious — and potentially dangerous — the opposition has attempted since opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself interim president in January.

"We're not beggars," he said. "What the U.S. empire is doing with its puppets is an internal provocation. They wanted to generate a great national commotion, but they didn't achieve it."

US SAYS IT WILL DELIVER AID BLOCKED BY VENEZUELA, SETTING UP CONFRONTATION WITH MADURO REGIME

The deadly clashes were not the only to turn violent in Venezuela over humanitarian aid.

Trucks driven by Guaido supporters nearly rammed into a blockade by security forces in an attempt to reach aid in Colombia.

Images showed a red truck trying to forcefully pass through a checkpoint in Mariara, in northern Venezuela a few hours outside of Caracas, on Thursday as the security forces appeared to stand their ground.

The national guardsmen in anti-riot gear positioned a trailer truck in front of a tunnel, blocking the highway westward. A shouting match and scuffle ensured, with the guardsmen firing tear cag before the lawmakers eventually forced their way through and resumed their journey.

VENEZUELA TO CLOSE BORDER WITH BRAZIL AMID MADURO'S REFUSAL OF HUMANITARIAN AID

The truck is part of a cross-country caravan led by Guiado for the border with Colombia, where much of the U.S.-supplied aid is warehoused. Guaido has called for thousands of ordinary Venezuelans to assemble at the Colombian border on Saturday to help bring the aid across.

Meanwhile, dueling concerts began on the country's western border with Colombia, where much of the U.S.-supplied aid is being stored in a warehouse.

British billionaire and adventurer Richard Branson is sponsoring a Live Aid-style concert featuring dozens of musicians including Latin rock star Juanes on one side of a crossing that Colombian officials have renamed the "Unity Bridge," while Maduro's socialist government is promising a three-day festival deemed "Hands Off Venezuela" on the other.

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The Trump administration said it's sent nearly 200 metric tons of humanitarian assistance over the past two weeks to the Colombian-Venezuelan border for distribution inside Venezuela.

The U.S. Agency for International Development said Friday that about 191 tons of relief supplies have been delivered to a depot in Cucuta, Colombia since Feb. 4. That includes food for 2,000 people for a month and medical material such as hygiene kits, wheelchairs, crutches, bandages, and examination gloves.

The Associated Press contributed to this report </s> Caracas, June 28 Armed civilian groups have attacked the Venezuelan Parliament building after a clash between lawmakers and the military police of the Bolivarian National Guard , opposition legislator Julio Borges has said. "Different lawmakers and Assembly personnel saw officers entering with boxes from the National Election Council and a clash occurred there between the GNB officers and the lawmakers," Borges said.

Start the conversation, or Read more at India.com. </s> At least four people have died following overnight clashes ahead of Wednesday's rival protests in Venezuela by supporters and opponents of President Nicolas Maduro, police and non-governmental organizations said.

A 16-year-old was among the dead having suffered "a firearm injury during a demonstration" in the capital Caracas, the Social Conflict Observatory said.

The other three deaths were registered in the southern state of Bolivar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) </s> At least four people have been killed and 24 injured amid violent clashes in Venezuela.

Violent scenes saw forces loyal to Nicolás Maduro open fire at the Colombian-Brazilian border after the president ordered them to block humanitarian aid entering the country.

In Santa Elena de Guairen four people were shot dead and 24 injured after irregular pro-government militias known as colectivos opened fire, according to Foro Penal, a legal non-profit group that tracks violence in Venezuela.

The group’s director, Alfredo Romero said: “We’ve been told colectivos shot at people at the border and the situation is grave."

Shocking security footage taken at the Venezula-Colombia border shows chaos at Francisco de Paula Santander bridge as people scrambled to grab supplies from a truck while Venezuelan riot police shot tear gas at them.

Demonstrators clashed with Venezuela's security forces at the bridge, near the town of Urena, Venezuela, which was one of three across which Guaido was hoping to pass much-needed food and medicine.

Medics were also treated civilians near the Simón Bolívar for tear gas inhalation and injuries sustained following a stampede that retreated when canisters were fired.

The clashes came after Venezuela's opposition and activists confronted troops stationed along the country's borders to block their plan to bring in food and medicine that authorities are calling a veiled U.S.-backed invasion.

Juan Guaido declared himself interim successor to President Maduro in the face of a crisis that has led millions to flee and left hundreds of thousands hungry.

While the need for basic food and medicines is real - with the country's inflation running at more than 2 million percent per year - the effort is also meant to embarrass military officers who continue to support Maduro's increasingly isolated government.

Maduro said today that his government had broken relations with Colombia and he would expel some Colombian diplomatic staff after Colombia assisted the opposition's efforts to bring humanitarian aid into the country.

He said in a speech: "Patience is exhausted, I can't bare it anymore, we can't keep putting up with Colombian territory being used for attacks against Venezuela.

"For that reason, I have decided to break all political and diplomatic relations with Colombia's fascist government."

He said the ambassador and consular staff would have to leave Venezuela within 24 hours.

Guaido, recognized by most Western nations as the country's legitimate head of state, defied court orders not to leave Venezuela by arriving on Friday in the Colombian border city of Cucuta, where aid from the U.S. and Colombian governments is stockpiled in warehouses.

"Today the obstacles that the dictatorship created will tomorrow be rivers of unity, of peace," Guaido said in a news conference in Cucuta, where he was received by Colombian President Ivan Duque.

Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said in a tweet late on Friday that Venezuela's government shut the Tachira border that connects it with Cucuta temporarily "due to a series of illegal threats" by Colombia.

A group of frustrated Venezuelans who were seeking to cross into Colombia on Saturday to work morning threw rocks and bottles at National Guard troops, who responded with tear gas.

"We were all going to work, we want to work, the people attempted to force through," said Viviana Meza, 29, who works in a Cucuta restaurant.

"At least four National Guard officers on Saturday at the border disavowed Maduro's government and requested assistance from the Colombian government, Colombia's migration agency said on Saturday.

Maduro blames the country's dire situation on U.S. sanctions that have blocked the country from obtaining financing and have hobbled the OPEC nation's oil industry.

Rodriguez says the aid is poisoned.

"I don't plan to leave my house over the weekend, especially after what happened near Brazil," said Paulina Sanchez, a 68-year-old grandmother who lives just 300 meters (yards) from the Francisco de Paula Santander bridge.

"This could turn into a powder keg."

In a slightly surreal twist Guiado and Maduro held opposing concerts just 300 yards apart on either end of a bridge linking Colombia and Venezuela.

The 'battle of the bands' pits Venezuela Live Aid organised by British billionaire Richard Branson, against Maduro's Hands Off Venezuela festival.

Branson, after being approached by Guaido, is bidding to raise $100million in donations through 'Venezuela Aid Live' on the Colombian side of Tienditas bridge.

On the other side of the crossing, closed off with freight containers, President Nicolas Maduro will hold 'hands off Venezuela' - a three day festival.

Guaido in January invoked articles of the constitution to assume interim presidency and denounced Maduro as a usurper, arguing his 2018 re-election was illegitimate. </s> CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — At least 12 people were killed overnight following looting and violence in Venezuela’s capital amid a spiraling political crisis, authorities said Friday.

Most of the deaths took place in El Valle, a working class neighborhood near Caracas’ biggest military base where opposition leaders say a group of people were hit with an electrical current while trying to loot a bakery protected by an electric fence.

Two days of massive protests on the streets of Caracas against the government of President Nicolas Maduro spilled into a violent night in several parts of the city, with residents in El Valle witnessing repetitive gunfire, street barricades set aflame and more than a dozen businesses looted. Amid the confusion, mothers and newborn children had to be evacuated from a maternity hospital named after the late leader Hugo Chavez when it was swamped with tear gas.

The Public Ministry said the violence left 11 people dead in El Valle, all men between the ages of 17 and 45. Another death was reported east of Caracas in El Sucre. Six others were injured.

Opposition leaders blamed the government for repressing protesters with tear gas but standing idly by as businesses were looted. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez pointed the finger at the opposition, saying armed groups controlled by them were responsible for the attack at the hospital.

“We reject and do not accept those irresponsible declarations,” said Henrique Capriles, a former presidential candidate who the government recently barred from running for public office.

Earlier Friday, officials reported that one of the dead was Mervins Guitian. The young Venezuelan man was fatally shot when he was returning home late from work on Thursday and got caught in the middle of late-night street clashes. Vicente Paez, a local councilman, said Guitian was an employee of a Caracas-area city governed by an opposition mayor and didn’t join the protests. It wasn’t clear who shot him and there was no immediate comment from authorities.

Venezuelan social media was ablaze late into the night with grainy cellphone videos of light-armored vehicles plowing down dark streets to control pockets of protesters who set up burning barricades in several neighborhoods.

Vice President Tareck El Aissami said Friday the country is facing an “unconventional war” led by opposition groups working in concert with criminal gangs. He said opposition claims government forces were responsible for launching tear gas at the maternity hospital were another attempt to demoralize a people who have “decided to break ties with the bourgeoisie forever.”

Overall, at least 20 people have been killed in the unrest generated after the government-stacked Supreme Court gutted congress of its last vestiges of power three weeks ago — a move later reversed amid a storm of international criticism. Opposition members say they do not intend to ease up on protests demanding new elections as they decry a government they deem a dictatorship responsible for triple-digit inflation, rising crime and food shortages.

“Twenty days of resistance and we feel newly born,” said opposition lawmaker Freddy Guevara during an evening, outdoor press conference as residents looking out from balconies in an eastern Caracas neighborhood at the heart of the protest movement cheered loudly in support.

The next planned protest is Saturday, when opponents are being asked to dress in white and march silently to commemorate the victims of the demonstration. There’s also a sit-in to block major highways planned for Monday.

General Motors announced early Thursday that it was closing its operations in Venezuela after authorities seized its factory in the industrial city of Valencia, a move that could draw the Trump administration into the escalating chaos engulfing the nation.

A number of major Latin American governments, including Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, called on Venezuela to take steps to increase democratic order and halt the violence that has been swirling around the protests. Across the country, clashes have been intense as protests grow in size and fervor.

The Supreme Court ruling reinvigorated Venezuela’s fractious opposition, which had been struggling to channel growing disgust with Maduro over widespread food shortages, triple-digit inflation and rampant crime.

Opponents are pushing for Maduro’s removal through early elections and the release of dozens of political prisoners. The government last year abruptly postponed regional elections that the opposition was heavily favored to win and it cut off a petition drive aimed at forcing a referendum seeking Maduro’s removal before elections scheduled for late next year.

But the government hasn’t backed down.

Already drawing criticism for the GM seizure, Maduro announced late Thursday that he wanted an investigation into cellphone operator Movistar for allegedly being part of the “coup-minded march” organized by his adversaries Wednesday. That march was the largest and most dramatic the country has seen in years. He said the subsidiary of Spain’s Telefonica “sent millions of messages to users every two hours” in support of Wednesday’s protests.

As tensions mount, the government is using its almost-complete control of Venezuela’s institutions to pursue its opponents. On Wednesday alone, 565 protesters were arrested nationwide, according to Penal Forum, a local group that provides legal assistance to detainees. It said 334 remained in jail Thursday.

Associated Press photographer Juan Carlos Hernandez in Valencia, AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher in Detroit, and Christine Armario in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.

More Associated Press reporting on Venezuela’s problems can be found at https://www.ap.org/explore/venezuela-undone . </s> CARACAS, April 21 (Reuters) - Eight people were electrocuted to death during a looting incident in Caracas, a firefighter said on Friday, amid violent protests against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by opponents accusing him of seeking to create a dictatorship.

The accident occurred when a group of looters broke into a bakery in the working class neighborhood of El Valle, according the firefighter, who asked not be identified. It was not immediately possible to confirm details of the incident with hospital or other officials.

The public prosecutor's office said later on Friday it was investigating 11 deaths in El Valle, adding that "some" victims had died from being electrocuted.

Nine other people have been killed in violence associated with a wave of anti-government demonstrations in the past three weeks in which protesters have clashed with security forces in melees lasting well into the night.

"Yesterday around 9 or 10 (p.m.)things got pretty scary, a group of people carrying weapons came down ... and started looting," said Hane Mustafa, owner of a small supermarket in El Valle, where broken bottles of soy sauce and ketchup littered the floor between bare shelves.

"The security situation is not in the hands of the government. We lost everything here," said Mustafa, who said he could hear the looting from his home, which is adjacent to the store.

Dozens of businesses in the area showed signs of looting, ranging from empty shelves to broken windows and twisted metal entrance gates.

The Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for details.

Security forces patrolled much of Caracas on Friday, including El Valle.

Maduro's government is so far resisting the pressure of the most serious protests in three years as opposition leaders push a series of political demands, drawing support from a public angered by the country's collapsing economy.

Ruling Socialist Party leaders describe the protesters as hoodlums who are damaging public property and disrupting public order to overthrow the government with the support of ideological adversaries in Washington.

"This wounded and failed opposition is trying to generate chaos in key areas of the city and convince the world that we're in some sort of civil war, the same playbook used for Syria, for Libya and for Iraq," said Socialist Party official Freddy Bernal in an internet broadcast at 1:00 a.m.

Opposition leaders have promised to keep up their protests, demanding that Maduro's government call general elections, free almost 100 jailed opposition activists and respect the autonomy of the opposition-led Congress.

They are calling for community-level protests across the country on Friday, a white-clad "silent" march in Caracas on Saturday to commemorate those killed in the unrest, and a nationwide "sit-in" blocking Venezuela's main roads on Monday.

Daniela Alvarado, 25, who sells vegetables in the El Valle area, said the looting on Thursday night began after police officers fired tear gas and buckshot at demonstrators blocking a street with burning tires.

"People starting looting the businesses and yelling that they were hungry and that they want the government out," said Alvarado. "We're afraid (the stores) are going to run out of everything, that tomorrow there won't be any food."

Separately, a man was killed by a gunshot in the Caracas slum of Petare on Thursday night, municipal mayor Carlos Ocariz said on Friday.

The OPEC nation's economy has been in free-fall since the collapse of oil prices in 2014. The generous oil-financed welfare state created by late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, Maduro's predecessor, has given way to a Soviet-style economy marked by consumer shortages, triple-digit inflation and snaking supermarket lines.

Many Venezuelans say they have to skip meals in order to feed their children.

Public anger at the situation spilled over last month when the Supreme Court, which is seen as close to the government, briefly assumed the powers of the Congress. The protests were further fueled when the government barred the opposition's best-known leader, two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, from holding public office. (Additional reporting by Carlos Garcia and Brian Ellsworth; Writing by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Alexandra Ulmer and Frances Kerry)
An armored car runs over supporters of Guaidó, escalating violence. At least 71 injured people, including two with gunshot wounds, were taken to Salud Chacao Medical Center in Caracas, according to the president of the center.