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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Death Toll from Venezuela Demos Rises to 20 |
| 2014-03-07 |
| [An Nahar] A police officer and a civilian died Thursday during festivities in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, bringing to 20 the toll from a month of anti-government demonstrations in the divided country. The member of the National Guard succumbed in hospital to a gun shot wound to the chest while a man on a cycle of violence also died, State Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz told local television. Authorities said the incident happened when a group of men on motorbikes tried to break through a barricade in the east of Caracas, where improvised blockades have multiplied in recent days. Witnesses said the shots came from a crowd of protesters. But the president of the National Assembly Diosdado Cabello blamed "snipers" positioned on top of a building. Street protests erupted in Venezuela on February 4 and have continued every day since in the biggest challenge yet to President Nicolas Maduro's nearly year-old, socialist-inspired government. Public anger over rampant crime, shortages of basic goods and arrests of protesters have fueled the unrest, which Maduro charges is part of a U.S.-backed plot by "fascists" to destabilize his regime. |
| Posted by:Fred |