Death toll in Venezuela protests up to 36 with police death

She told the Wall Street Journal that the government should ensure people’s right to demonstrate freely, without arbitrary arrests. The situation hasn’t been getting a tremendous amount of attention in the Western world - but after this week, that could change.

A young man died Friday after he was injured in violence as looting broke out in impoverished Venezuelan cities, an official said, bringing the toll from unrest in more than a month of anti-government protests to at least 36.

Opposition demonstrations in Venezuela have been violently repressed by government military -and sometimes civilian- forces, who throw tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at demonstrators.

(AP Photo/Fernando Llano). National Police launch tear gas as they advance on student protesters outside the Central University of Venezuela, in Caracas, Thursday, May 4, 2017.

Another student, Santiago Acosta, read aloud a plea to Pope Francis.

When Pope Francis meets with President Donald Trump at the Vatican next month, the world will be watching how the Argentine “slum pope” interacts with the brash, NY billionaire-turned-president.

An influential group of United States senators filed sweeping legislation on Wednesday to address the crisis in Venezuela, including sanctioning individuals responsible for undermining democracy or involved in corruption.

This week Financial Times published an excellent video report titled “Thug Nation: Venezuela’s broken revolution”.

The president, elected in 2013, says the crisis is a US-backed capitalist conspiracy.

The ambassador conceded his country was facing tremendous economic problems on account of the low global prices of oil. The International Monetary Fund predicts inflation in Venezuela will reach 1,600 percent this year. Blackouts caused by electricity shortages are also a fact of life these days.

An estimated 80 percent of food items and other basics were in short supply by previous year.

The envoy pointed out that petroleum flow from Venezuela to India began during the tenure of President Hugo Chavez and the Latin American country had emerged as the fourth largest supplier of petroleum to India.

The president’s critics and opponents see the plan as a maneuver to delay elections so he can remain in power.

Venezuelan streets have met with chaos, protests and bloodshed for weeks, as President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro called for a new assembly to rewrite the nation’s constitution in an attempt to consolidate control. Global reaction was swift - Peru recalled its ambassador and called for the Organisation of American States (OAS) to eject Venezuela from its rankings. The senators will also instruct US intelligence agencies to prepare a report on Venezuelan government officials’ supposed involvement in corruption and drug trafficking.

He said “no ideology can go beyond the common good” and “politics must be exercised from conscience and in the utmost respect of the Constitution”. “We consider it a serious setback for democracy in Venezuela”.

“The Bolivarian National Guard has put up a great, heroic fight”.

The constituent assembly would reportedly have the authority to dissolve the existing bodies of public power, such as the legislature, and call new elections on an as-yet undetermined schedule.

“My message of hope, is that we can definitively get out of this cycle of violence, of insurgency, by way of … the constituent assembly”, Maduro said.

But protesters aren’t taking it that way.

Students have battled tear gas-throwing police in demonstrations across Venezuela’s capital as a two-month-old protest movement that shows no signs of letting up claimed more lives.