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

"We are students, not terrorists!" a mass of students chanted as they marched in Caracas.

Soldiers bathed hundreds of protesters in tear gas at the Central University of Venezuela, with medics in gas masks attending to students with bloodied faces and limbs.

"Do you know how many dead there are?" Rafaela Requesens, a student leader, shouted at a wall of National Guard officers standing shoulder-to-shoulder and stopping protesters from advancing. "They are your victims."

Gunfire erupted at a student gathering in El Tigre, a city southeast of Caracas, leaving Juan Lopez, 33, dead and three others injured, according to the chief prosecutor's office. Preliminary reports indicate an assailant fired at Lopez toward the end of the meeting and then fled on a motorcycle. Lopez was the president of a university federation.

The student leader's death brought to at least 37 the number killed in Venezuela's ongoing political turmoil.

Earlier Thursday, authorities announced a 38-year-old police officer in the central state of Carabobo had died of his injuries after being shot during a Wednesday protest that had hundreds of thousands of people on the street nationwide. Wednesday's protest also left a 17-year-old student and musician dead.

More than 700 others have been wounded, no small matter in a country with crippling medical shortages. Opposition leaders said 30 were injured in Thursday's student demonstrations. Overall, more than 1,000 have been arrested.

West of Caracas in Valencia, there were reports of looting at several businesses and at least one factory, the thieves taking off with plastic crates filled with bottles and even a forklift.

Protesters are demanding immediate presidential elections. President Nicolas Maduro accuses the opposition of attempting a coup, and has responded with an initiative to rewrite the constitution.

Walking through an agricultural expo where he pet goats and sampled cheese Thursday, Maduro repeatedly reiterated his call for a special assembly tasked with defining Venezuela's future. He added that the yet-to-be-created constituent body would decide the South American nation's destiny "for the next 50 years."

International pressure on Maduro to hold elections is continuing to escalate amid his call for a constitution rewrite. A group of bipartisan U.S. legislators sent a letter to President Donald Trump Thursday urging him to apply new sanctions against individuals responsible for human rights violations and to push for the delivery of humanitarian relief.

Eight Latin American nations issued a statement decrying the excessive use of force by Venezuelan authorities against protesters, saying such actions only, "polarize Venezuelan society even more."

And Venezuelan classical music maestro Gustavo Dudamel spoke out against events in his country, calling on Maduro to listen to the protesters.

In an online essay titled "I Raise My Voice," he urged Maduro to reduce political tensions.

"We must stop ignoring the just cry of the people suffocated by an intolerable crisis," said Dudamel, who is serving as the Los Angeles Philharmonic's musical director.

Venezuelans and fellow classical music performers have blasted Dudamel in the past for being cozy with Maduro.

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Follow Hannah Dreier on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/hannahdreier</s>Venezuelan security forces battled protesters who lit fires and hurled stones in Caracas on Wednesday in rage at President Nicolas Maduro’s decree to create an alternative congress, with another fatality taking the death toll to 34 during a month of unrest.

In a familiar pattern in protests against the socialist government, thousands of opposition supporters rallied peacefully at first before being blocked, sparking fights around the city between masked youths and soldiers.

One 17-year-old protester died in the melee from an object that hit him in the neck, said Gerardo Blyde, a district mayor for the opposition.

“A young man with all his life ahead. He simply fought for a better country,” Blyde said on Twitter of the case which the Venezuelan state prosecutor’s office said it would investigate.

More than 200 people were injured as fights raged in various parts of the capital, Blyde and another opposition mayor said.

Marchers tried to reach the national assembly legislature, where the opposition has a majority, to protest against Mr Maduro’s creation of an alternative “popular” congress viewed by foes as a ruse to dodge free elections and cling to power.

They were pushed back by national guard troops with tear gas, armoured vehicles and riot shields on the Francisco Fajardo highway, which runs through the middle of the city.

“They are mobilised as if this was a war,” said opposition leader Henrique Capriles, broadcasting from the scene via the Periscope app favoured by protest leaders.

On the opposition side, youths donned gas masks and bandanas, throwing Molotov cocktails and using slingshots to fire stones. They protected themselves with home-made shields, painted in bright colours and decorated with slogans such as “Liberty!” and “Murderer Maduro!”.

Local media published footage showing two protesters being knocked over by a national guard vehicle. Both survived.

With demonstrators erecting barricades and police helicopters whirring overhead, at least three opposition politicians were injured, activists said. “An injury by the dictatorship is a badge of honour,” tweeted First Justice MP Freddy Guevara, who said he was hit by a tear gas canister.

Opposition leaders have vowed to stay in the streets after Mr Maduro’s announcement on Monday that he was creating the “constituent assembly” which is empowered to rewrite the constitution.

“It’s a tool to avoid free elections. We’ve been marching 18 years but this is our last card. It’s all or nothing,” said pensioner Miren Bilbao (66), with friends and family on the Francisco Fajardo highway.

While the opposition was keeping up momentum, it was unclear how the protests could achieve their aims after demonstrations in 2014 failed to dislodge Mr Maduro. Back then, however, the opposition was splintered, protests failed to spread to poor areas and the economy was in better shape.

Mr Maduro (54), the former bus driver who narrowly won election to replace Hugo Chavez in 2013, says his foes are seeking a violent coup with the connivance of the United States and encouragement of international media.

Officials say violence around the protests, and the opposition’s unwillingness to hold talks, left Mr Maduro with no choice but to shake up Venezuela’s governing apparatus.

During a meeting with election officials on Wednesday, Mr Maduro said a vote for the new assembly would take place in coming weeks. At least half of the members would be chosen by grassroots groups including workers, indigenous people and farmers, and the rest in a vote, Mr Maduro has said, although details remained fuzzy.

“The new constituent process starting today will consolidate the republic and bring to the nation the peace that we all deserve,” he said, clutching a pocket-size blue constitution and later dancing to the beat of drums.

“The republic must defend itself from terrorism,” he added, joining supporters in a rally downtown after presenting his plans to the national election board, which backed the move.

The opposition is seeking to hold state gubernatorial elections delayed from 2016 and bring forward the 2018 presidential vote amid a devastating economic crisis.

It says Mr Maduro’s use of a “constituent assembly” is a cynical ploy to confuse citizens into thinking he has made concessions when in fact he is seeking to tweak the system to avoid elections the Socialist Party would likely lose.

Mr Maduro’s move has drawn condemnation from the US and some Latin American countries, including regional powerhouse Brazil that labelled it a “coup”.

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

But backing has come from regional leftist allies including Cuba. Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales, said Venezuela had the right to “decide its future . . . without external intervention.” – (Reuters)</s>Students held demonstrations across Caracas today as a two-month-old protest movement that shows no signs of letting up claimed more lives. At the Central University of Venezuela, soldiers bathed hundreds of student protesters in tear gas. Many of the protesters stayed put, and medics in gas masks attended to others with bloodied faces and limbs.

Students from another university marched peacefully to deliver a petition to the office of the country’s Catholic bishops, asking the Pope to speak out against the violence and the government’s steps toward authoritarianism.

Gunfire erupted at a student gathering in El Tigre, a city southeast of Caracas, leaving Juan Lopez, 33, dead and three others injured, according to the chief prosecutor’s office.

According to preliminary reports, an assailant fired at Lopez toward the end of the meeting and then fled on a motorcycle. Lopez was the president of a university federation. The student leader’s death brought the number of people killed in Venezuela’s ongoing political turmoil to at least 37.

Earlier today, authorities announced that a 38-year-old police officer in the central state of Carabobo had died of his injuries after being shot during a Wednesday protest that had hundreds of thousands of people on the street nationwide. A 17 year-old was also killed during the day’s protests.

Hundreds more have been wounded – no small matter in a country with crippling medical shortages. And more than 1,000 have been arrested.

Protesters are demanding immediate presidential elections. President Nicolas Maduro accuses the opposition of attempting a coup, and has responded with an initiative to rewrite the constitution.

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A student is killed amid gunfire in El Tigre, raising the death toll in protests against Nicolás Maduro's government to at least 37 in the past month.