Venezuela saw new deadly protests today on the 50th day of a general strike against President Hugo Chavez who said the country was at war.
One demonstrator was killed and 25 were wounded in the confrontation between as Chavez supporters and opponents in Valles del Tuy, 40 kilometers west of Caracas, local officials said.
Mr Chavez, who has rejected demands for new elections, said in an interview with Brazilian television earlier that Venezuela "is a country at war."
"There is a mass media war, a political war and an economic war and a moral war. We are fighting here," the beleaguered president told GloboNews.
The Venezuelan opposition called the strike on December 2nd saying that the leftist leader was leading the South American nation to ruin. Mr Chavez, who was briefly forced out of office by a coup last April, has said the opposition is plotting a new attempt to get him out of office by force.
Protests during the strike have now left at least three dead and scores injured. More anti-Chavez demonstrations are planned this week.
The strike has badly hit the oil industry, the biggest foreign currency earner. Venezuela is the world's fifth biggest oil exporter and the national currency has hit historic lows against the dollar since the action started.
But the opposition has admitted that production is rising again and the head of the state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) said today the country had purchased enough fuel to meet demand in the near future.
Mr Chavez told GloboNews that the strike was "a conspiracy, terrorism and a plan to bring down a constitutional government."
AFP