Caracas: May Day clashes between opposition supporters and Venezuela’s armed forces in Caracas left a woman dead and 46 people injured on Wednesday, with opposition leader Juan Guaido attempting to rally demonstrators against President Nicolas Maduro. Jurubith Rausseo, 27, died at a clinic after being hit by a “bullet in the head during (a) demonstration,” the non-governmental Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict said on Twitter, condemning her “murder.”
Human rights organizations and health services reported 46 people injured in Wednesday’s clashes, including one person with a gunshot wound. Tensions in Venezuela have soared since Guaido, who heads the National Assembly legislature, invoked the constitution to declare himself acting president on January 23, claiming Maduro’s re-election last year was illegitimate.
National Guard troops fired tear gas at stone-throwing protesters attempting to block a highway close to the air base in eastern Caracas where Guaido had tried on Tuesday to spark a military uprising. A second day of confrontations between opposition supporters and Maduro’s security services came as the United States said it was prepared to take military action, if necessary, to stem the crisis in the South American nation.
Guaido rallied his supporters in Caracas in the Labor Day demonstrations, urging them to stay in the streets. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned Venezuela’s authorities not to use deadly force against demonstrators, while the US and Russia accused each other of making the crisis worse, evoking Cold War confrontations of the past. In box Maduro exhorts Venezuela military to fight ‘any coup plotter’
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday called on the armed forces to oppose “any coup plotter” after a failed military uprising by forces supporting opposition leader Juan Guaido. “Yes, we are in combat, keep morale high in this fight to disarm any traitor, any coup plotter,” Maduro said at a televised event with the military high command in which he appeared surrounded by soldiers.
