A
20-year-old Venezuelan protester died on Friday after being shot in the head,
authorities said, taking fatalities from a month of anti-government unrest to
at least 37
as the opposition geared up for more demonstrations.
Hecder Lugo
was hurt 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 socialist President Nicolas 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 around the volatile South American OPEC nation of 30
million people, 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.
And in an
incident loaded with symbolism, a handful of young men destroyed a statue of
late leader Hugo Chavez in the oil-producing Zulia state, according to videos
circulating on social media on Friday evening.
Footage
shows the statue, which depicts Chavez 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 Chavez. They accuse him, correctly, of destroying
their future," opposition lawmaker Carlos Valero said about the incident,
which was also reported in local media. Reuters was unable to independently
confirm it.
Venezuela's
opposition, which now enjoys majority support after being in the shadow of the
ruling Socialist party since Chavez'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 U.S. support, and is
setting up a "constituent assembly" super body to shake up public
powers, change the constitution, and possibly replace the existing legislature.
"President
Maduro has made a big call to national dialogue," Foreign Minister Delcy
Rodriguez 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."
FATALITIES
ON BOTH SIDES
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 state gubernatorial elections 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 terrorize demonstrators.
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 publicize the detentions.
"Cousin,
it's enough!" Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino's cousin, Ernesto Padrino,
wrote to him in an open letter.
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
percent 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."
*REUTERS*
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