Venezuelan police have deployed water cannons and used tear gas against crowds of angry stone-throwing protesters in Caracas. Activists unhappy with the economic course of President Nicolas Maduro have been resorting to sporadic violence since Wednesday.
Police clashed with a crowd of protesters who attempted to block
a Caracas highway. The violence erupted in the late evening after
hundreds of thousands of supporters and opponents of Venezuela's
leftist government had gone home.
About 3,000 opponents dressed in white and carrying red, blue and
yellow Venezuelan flags gathered in the capital earlier on
Saturday demanding the release detained students and other
opposition activists.
"We are here once again to demand the release of students who
were detained and because we can't live with such violence,"
Maria Correia, 20, said in a wealthy neighborhood in the eastern
section of Caracas as cited by AFP.
On Saturday twenty five of 99 people arrested earlier in the week
in connection with the protests had been freed pending trial said
Venezuela's state prosecutor adding that the others would be
processed within hours.
Along with anti-government protests, several pro-government rallies were also held in Venezuela and were broadcast on national television. Addressing his supporters in Caracas Maduro called on the people to show support for his leadership.
“You want to see people in the streets? We'll give you people
in the streets,” he said to cheers from thousands of
supporters.
“I'm not going to give up one millimeter of the power the
Venezuelan people have given me ... nothing will stop me from
building this revolution which commandant Chavez left us!”
The demonstrations follow more than 10 days of anti-government rallies, mostly led by students that culminated on Wednesday, in which at least three people died, two students and a community activist in the worst unrest since Nicolas Maduro assumed the presidency last year.
Over 25 people sustained injuries as activists set up barricades
in the city. Police clashed with the crowd using tear gas.
Nicolas Maduro responded to the violence in a public statement,
denouncing the unrest as an attempt to carry out a coup d’état.
He laid the blame at the feet of extremist fascist groups and
said that those responsible for the violence would be prosecuted
under the full weight of the law.
On Thursday a court ordered the arrest of opposition leader
Leopoldo Lopez on charges of murder and terrorism during the
street violence, as Lopez spent two weeks organizing sporadic
rallies around the country.
The latest bout of demonstrations focuses on the country’s
economic woes and the high level of inflation Venezuela has
experienced recently.