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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 17 May 2017
Venezuela violence continue to grow amid protests

Several buildings were set ing toll as Venezuela’s op- creasing, with the Organi-
ablaze. Hundreds were in- position vows to step up zation of American States
jured across the country, in- near-daily demonstrations voting Monday to hold
cluding one young woman and Maduro shows no in- a rare foreign ministers’
in a white shirt in Caracas, tention of conceding to op- meeting later this month to
who stood on a street as ponents’ demands. More discuss the crisis. The Wash-
blood streamed down her than three dozen people ington-based group only
face. Three officers were have been killed, including convenes such meetings to
shot in the central state of a national guardsman and address most urgent affairs.
Carabobo. One was in criti- a police officer. As many as The embattled Venezu-
cal condition after being 2,000 have been detained elan president has vowed
shot in the head, authorities in nearly seven weeks of to resolve his nation’s crisis
said. In Lara, a vehicle ran protests. International pres- by convening a special as-
over three protesters. sure on the troubled South sembly to rewrite the na-
The unrest is taking a mount- American nation is also in- tion’s constitution.q

Demonstrators run on a
closed highway during a na-
tional sit-in against President
Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas,
Venezuela. Opposition lead-
ers are demanding immedi-
ate presidential elections.
(AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

By HANNAH DREIER
CHRISTINE ARMARIO
Associated Press
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP)
— Chaos erupted in Ven-
ezuela this week during
another round of protests
against the socialist gov-
ernment, with buildings
set afire, tear gas canisters
lobbed back and forth,
and at least three new
deaths reported.
Grisly videos captured
much of Monday’s vio-
lence. In a video purporting
to show the final moments
of one man left dead in the
turmoil, a crowd surrounds
a man identified as 33
year-old Diego Hernandez.
He lies on the pavement,
his eyes open and fixed. A
bystander tears off his blue
T-shirt, revealing a bloody
wound underneath.
“They killed him!” someone
screams.
Officials in the western
state of Tachira said a
second man, Luis Alvi-
arez, 18, died from a bul-
let to the chest amid the
protests. And on Tuesday,
17-year-old Yeison Mora
succumbed to a bullet to
the head received during
a protest in the plains state
of Barinas.
Monday’s “sit-in against
the dictatorship” began
peacefully, but later in
the day, demonstrators
clashed with soldiers and
police, throwing rocks and
setting an armored truck
on fire. State security offi-
cers unleashed a volley of
tear gas and rubber bullets.