Hugo Chávez statue torn down as death toll rises in Venezuela protests

Young protester shot in the head amid continuation of demonstrations that brand President Nicolás Maduro a dictator and demand elections

A 20-year-old Venezuelan protester has died after being shot in the head, authorities said, taking the death toll from a month of anti-government unrest to at least 37.

Hecder Lugo was killed during fighting between demonstrators and security forces in Valencia on Thursday that also injured four others, the local opposition mayor, Enzo Scarano, said in a series of tweets.

The state prosecutor’s office, which keeps an official count of deaths since protests began against the Socialist president, Nicolás Maduro, in early April, confirmed he died after being shot in a protest.

Another 717 people have been injured and 152 are still in jail from the hundreds rounded up in widespread unrest across the country, according to the office’s latest tally.

There has been violence and widespread looting this week in Valencia, a once-bustling industrial hub two hours from the capital by road.

In an incident loaded with symbolism, a group of young men destroyed a statue of the late leader Hugo Chávez in oil-producing Zulia state, according to videos circulating on social media on Friday evening.

'Everything is in chaos': night of violence reveals depths of Venezuela crisis Read more

Footage shows the statue, which depicts Chávez saluting and wearing a sash, being yanked down to cheers in a public plaza before it is bashed into a sidewalk and then the road as onlookers swear at the leftist, who died in 2013 from cancer.

“Students destroyed this statue of Chávez. They accuse him, correctly, of destroying their future,” opposition lawmaker Carlos Valero said about the incident, which was also reported in local media. Reuters was unable to independently confirm it.

JMP (@jesunym) Derrumbe d la estatua d Chávez en Villa del Rosario edo Zulia @ObservadBinario @hcapriles @HaslerIglesias @trafficMcbo @MariaCorinaYA pic.twitter.com/1YfN03z4Rg

Venezuela’s opposition, which now enjoys majority support after being in the shadow of the ruling Socialist party since Chávez’s 1998 election win, says his successor Maduro has become a dictator and wrecked the economy.

Vowing to stay in the streets for as long as necessary, opposition leaders announced nationwide women’s marches for Saturday with the biggest planned for the capital, Caracas.

Opposition lawmakers briefly unfurled a banner on Friday at the National Assembly, where they won a majority in 2015 thanks to voter ire over the recession, saying “Maduro Dictator”.

The president says they are seeking a violent coup with US support and is setting up a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution and possibly replace the existing legislature.

“President Maduro has made a big call to national dialogue,” foreign minister Delcy Rodriguez told diplomats at a meeting on Friday, showing them images of violence and vandalism on the streets caused by youths at the front of protests.

“They are not peaceful, the opposition leaders share big responsibility in these acts of extremism and vandalism.”

Opposition protests have often started peacefully but degenerated into violence when security forces block marchers and masked youths fight them with stones, Molotov cocktails and fireworks shot from pipes turned into homemade mortars.

Fatalities have included supporters of both sides, bystanders and members of the security forces.

Gunshot wounds have been the most common cause of deaths.

The opposition is boycotting Maduro’s constituent assembly process, saying it is a ploy to keep him in power by setting up a body with mechanisms to ensure a government majority.

Having failed to trigger a referendum on his rule last year, the opposition is calling for delayed elections of state governors to be held as soon as possible, and for the next presidential election slated for 2018 to be brought forward.

Polls show the ruling Socialists would badly lose any conventional vote due to four years of economic crisis that has led to debilitating food and medicine shortages.

While Maduro says opposition ranks include armed hoodlums, activists accuse the security forces of using excessive force including firing teargas canisters directly at people and allowing pro-government gangs to terrorise demonstrators.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles said on Friday that 85 members of the military in Caracas had been arrested for opposition “repression”, adding that their relatives had asked him to publicise the detentions.

“Cousin, it’s enough!” defence minister Vladimir Padrino’s cousin, Ernesto Padrino, wrote to him in an open letter. He was following in the footsteps of the state human rights ombudsman’s son who surprised the country by publishing a video begging his father to “end the injustice”.

“Eighty percent of Venezuelans want elections as a way out of our nation’s grave economic and political crisis,” wrote Ernesto Padrino on Facebook.

“Sooner or later, the Venezuelan people will make you pay.”