Student killed during ‘mother of all marches’ in Venezuela

Venezuelan security forces fired tear gas as demonstrators staged what they billed as the "mother of all marches" against President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday, and a student caught up in a clash died after being shot in the head.

Opposition supporters protested in Caracas and other cities, denouncing Maduro for eroding democracy and plunging the economy into chaos. Crowds swelled to hundreds of thousands, including Maduro supporters who held a counter-demonstration in the capital at the urging of the president.

The duelling marches drew parallels to the clashes between pro- and anti-government protesters in 2002 that triggered a brief coup against late president Hugo Chavez.

Carlos Moreno (18), a student, was on his way to play soccer in Caracas and did not plan to take part in the demonstration when government supporters approached an opposition gathering and fired shots, according to witnesses and a family member. Moreno was shot in the head, they said.

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Waving the country’s red, yellow and blue flag and shouting “No more dictatorship” and “Maduro out”, demonstrators clogged a stretch of the main highway in Caracas. Troops fired tear gas in Caracas neighbourhoods and in the border city of San Cristóbal.

“We have to protest because this country is dying of hunger, said Alexis Mendoza, a 53-year-old administrator marching in the Caracas neighbourhood of El Paraiso. “There are a lot of people in the opposition and they are full of courage.”

Fortnight of protests

The protest followed a fortnight of violent protests, in which five people have been killed, triggered by a supreme court decision in March to assume the powers of the opposition-led Congress – which it quickly reversed under international pressure.

The court’s move nonetheless fuelled long-simmering anger over the ruling Socialist Party’s handling of the economy. The oil-exporting country suffers from Soviet-style shortages of food and consumer goods, and triple-digit inflation.

The opposition is demanding a timeline for delayed elections, a halt a security crackdown on protests, and respect for the autonomy of the opposition-led legislature.

Maduro says recent protests have been little more than opposition efforts to foment violence and topple his government.

Moreno, the student hit by gunfire, died in a clinic after undergoing surgery, according to three security officials who asked not to be identified.

“There was an exchange of words, the situation got complicated and, well, they shot the guy,” said Arhiam Cano, a graphic designer who witnessed the event, in a telephone interview. “When they took the young man to [a nearby clinic], the government supporters left.”

An employee of the clinic said the man was undergoing surgery, without giving details. Venezuela’s information ministry did not respond to an email seeking details.

The marchers gathered at more than two-dozen points around Caracas and hoped to converge on the office of the state ombudsman, a guarantor of human rights.

Previous efforts to march there have been blocked by the National Guard. In many cases protests have ended with youths throwing rocks and squaring off against security forces spraying tear gas in melees that have dragged on well into the evening.

• Reuters