CARACAS: Venezuelan activists called for fresh protests yesterday after at least 41 people were arrested as street battles raged between security forces and protesters angry at the policies of the country’s leftist government.
Three weeks of violent protests against President Nicolas Maduro’s government have left 18 dead in the oil-rich nation, according to government figures, and the crisis showed little sign of abating.
National Guard security forces blasted the student-led demonstrators in the city’s wealthy Chacao district late on Friday with high-pressure water, and fired tear gas canisters in an attempt to break up the crowd.
Hooded protesters set up barricades and responded with a steady barrage of Molotov cocktails.
With no sign of a breakthrough in the crisis gripping the oil-rich country, Washington urged Maduro to talk to the protesters.
“They need to reach out and have a dialogue, and bring people together and resolve their problems,” Secretary of State John Kerry said in Washington, urging against “arrests and violence in the streets”.
Kerry said the United States was working with Colombia and other countries to bolster mediation efforts. Maduro has labelled the protests that began on February 4 a Washington-backed attempted “coup.”
He claims that radical opposition leaders have joined students angered by high inflation and goods shortage in plotting to topple his nearly year-old government. At least 41 protesters were arrested during the latest rally in Caracas, eight of whom were foreigners “and are being held for international terrorism,” state VTV television said. AFP
