</s>A fifth person has been killed in the protests sweeping the streets of Caracas against the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The man, a 32-year-old, suffered gunshot wounds during clashes on Tuesday. On Thursday, he became the fifth casualty of the increasingly bloody regime crackdown on protesters pushing back against a government that recently tried to neuter its legislature and which has inflicted world-beating inflation and food and medicine shortages on its populace.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled that it would overtake some of the functions of the legislature (perhaps motivated by a need to avoid a bond default Wednesday, which the government has managed, for now). This was met with widespread outrage, and people took to the streets. The Supreme Court then largely reversed the decision, and Maduro declared any scandal over.

But people did not stop protesting. Dozens have been arrested, and leading opposition figure Henrique Capriles has been barred from holding office for 15 years.

Huge numbers of Venezuelans took to the streets on Thursday, carrying the national flag upside down in a sign of protest against what many consider a “criminal regime.” “Nothing will stop us, nor get us off the streets,” tweeted María Corina Machado, a major opposition figure.

On Tuesday, a parade Maduro was presiding over turned violent, and the president was pelted with eggs by increasingly desperate people who do not have enough to eat. On Tuesday night, people in poorer areas — typically supporters of Maduro’s social spending programs — joined the protests, blocking off streets and lighting fires. Two teenagers were killed that night.

With the reversal of the Supreme Court order doing nothing to douse the resistance, the big questions now become: Why is Maduro so desperately clinging to power, and how long can he keep it up, at this rate of repression and public resistance?</s>Amid shortages of food and medicine, thousands take to Caracas streets as campaign to topple the president turns deadly.

Fresh clashes have erupted between police and protesters rallying against the Venezuelan government as a fifth person reportedly dies after being shot during earlier unrest.

Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets in eastern Caracas amid a tropical downpour on Thursday to support a protest movement that appears to be gaining steam even as it turns more deadly.

Venezuela officials confirmed later in the day that a fifth person had died in the wave of anti-government protests now entering its third week.

The public prosecutor's office says it will investigate the death of Miguel Colmenares, 36.

He was shot at during a protest in the central city of Barquisimeto on Tuesday.

Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela's socialist president, is fighting off efforts to topple him as Venezuela struggles with shortages of food and medicine.

Dozens of people have been injured and more than 100 arrested over the past week in clashes in various cities, according to authorities.

Alfonso Marquina, an opposition politician, on Twitter identified the latest death as Antonio Gruseny Calderon and called him "another victim of the dictatorship".

Marquina and officials earlier said a 13-year-old boy was shot dead in protests on Tuesday in Barquisimeto.

Marquina blamed that killing on so-called colectivos, armed supporters of the government whom the opposition accuses of attacking them during demonstrations.

A 36-year-old man was killed the same night in Barquisimeto, prosecutors said.

Two 19-year-old students were shot by police in earlier unrest, one on April 6 and one on April 11, according to authorities.

Also on Thursday, Jose Manuel Olivares, another opposition legislator, said police fired tear gas "point-blank" at demonstrators in the state of Vargas.

"If they think they will scare us that way they are wrong. We will stay in the street!" he wrote on Twitter.

While demonstrations are often held in middle-class neighbourhoods, this most recent wave of unrest for the first time has prompted protests in the slums that have historically been bastions of support for the socialist revolution launched nearly two decades ago by Hugo Chavez, the late president.</s>CARACAS, VENEZUELA—Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets in wealthy eastern Caracas Thursday amid a tropical downpour to support a protest movement that is gaining steam even as it turns more deadly.

Venezuela officials confirmed earlier in the day that a fifth person had died in the wave of anti-government protests now entering its third week.

The public prosecutor’s office says it will investigate the death of 36-year-old Miguel Colmenares. He was shot at a protest in the central city of Barquisimeto on Tuesday.

Read more:Venezuelans rally to oppose President Maduro as officials attempt to break up crowd

Gruseny Calderon was killed during the same protest. Congressman Alfonso Marquina says the 32-year-old protester was injured by rubber bullets that pierced his lung and liver.</s>Caracas - A fifth person died Thursday after being shot during protests against the Venezuelan government, officials said, as tension mounted in a political crisis driven by food shortages.

The 32-year-old man died from a gunshot wound suffered during clashes on Tuesday night in the northwestern town of Cabudare, a spokesperson for the public prosecution service who asked not to be named told AFP.

Socialist President Nicolas Maduro is fighting off efforts to oust him as Venezuela, once a booming oil exporting nation, struggles with shortages of food and medicine.

Dozens of people have been injured and more than 100 arrested since April 6, according to authorities.

Riot police in various cities have fired tear gas and water cannon at stone-throwing demonstrators.

Opposition lawmaker Alfonso Marquina also reported the man's death on Twitter, identifying him as Antonio Gruseny Calderon.

Marquina called him "another victim of the dictatorship."

"My solidarity and condolences for all his relatives and friends. This must not go unpunished," he wrote.

Marquina and officials earlier said a 13-year-old boy was shot dead in protests on Tuesday in the western city of Barquisimeto, in Lara state.

Marquina blamed that killing on so-called "colectivos," armed supporters of the government who the opposition says commit violence during demonstrations.

A 36-year-old man was killed the same night in Barquisimeto, prosecutors said.

Two 19-year-old students were shot by police in earlier unrest, one on April 6 and one on April 11, according to authorities.

Also on Thursday, opposition lawmaker Jose Manuel Olivares said police fired tear gas "point-blank" at demonstrators in the state of Vargas.

"If they think they will scare us that way they are wrong. We will stay in the street!" he wrote on Twitter.

Two other demonstrations took place in Caracas and one in the country's second city, Maracaibo, without incidents, according to media reports.

On Wednesday, scuffles broke out between government supporters and opponents during a Holy Week procession at the Santa Teresa church in central Caracas.

The next major organised rallies called by opposition leaders are set for Wednesday next week.

That is expected to be the next big showdown in an increasingly fraught crisis that has raised international concerns for Venezuela's stability.

The opposition is demanding the authorities set a date for postponed regional elections.

It is also furious over moves to limit the powers of the legislature and ban senior opposition leader Henrique Capriles from politics.

Those moves have raised international condemnation including from the United States and the European Union.

Maduro has resisted opposition efforts to hold a referendum on removing him, vowing to continue the "socialist revolution" launched by his late predecessor Hugo Chavez.

Maduro says the economic crisis is the result of what he calls a US-backed capitalist conspiracy.</s>Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets in wealthy eastern Caracas Thursday amid a tropical downpour to support a protest movement that is gaining steam even as it turns more deadly. Venezuela officials confirmed earlier in the day that a fifth person had died in the wave of anti-government protests now entering its third week.

Start the conversation, or Read more at US News & World Report.</s>According to El Universal newspaper, Borges blamed the Venezuelan authorities for the deaths and urged the army to disarm the militarized troops backing President Nicolas Maduro.

"Civil militarized armed groups should be banned, since it contradicts the existence of the Venezuelan military forces, the only one who have a monopoly on the use of weapons in the country," Borges said, as quoted by the newspaper.

Earlier on Thursday, the Nacional newspaper reported that Venezuelan security forces dispersed another opposition protest, which was blocking one of the main highways of the country's capital Caracas, by using tear gas and rubber bullets.

Venezuela has seen a series of demonstrations this week which were triggered by the country’s Supreme Court move amid a severe economic crisis in the country.</s>Protests are mounting against embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and the death toll is mounting too. As demonstrators braved a tropical storm on the streets of Caracas on Thursday, a 36-year-old died elsewhere of wounds he had sustained in other protests days earlier.

Opposition lawmaker Alfonso Marquina announced Gruseny Antonio Calderon's death on Twitter, calling him "another victim of the dictatorship."

Calderon is the fifth protester to die of injuries sustained in clashes with police since the latest round of protests kicked off roughly two weeks ago. According to authorities, others include a 13-year-old boy and two college-age students.

Despite the deaths, the recent unrest shows no sign of relenting. The Associated Press reports organizers had planned protests for more than 300 municipalities — calling for new elections and the removal of certain judges seen as overly friendly with Maduro's regime — and demonstrations have even swelled to low-income areas of Venezuela's capital city, where socialists have typically drawn their staunchest supporters.

And the AP notes that as security forces have turned to crowd-control devices such as tear gas, protesters have responded by "coming ready with goggles, vinegar-soaked rags and gas masks."

The protests mark a stark contrast with Holy Weeks of years past in Venezuela, where many people use the time — and vacation days — to celebrate and rest, according to the Miami Herald. The paper even notes that Maduro's ruling socialist government offered people additional vacation days this year, partly in an attempt to encourage a lull in demonstrations.

That didn't convince demonstrators in Caracas like 64-year-old Alfonzo Lopez Porras to stay home.

"Those of us who are on our way out of this world have much to protest," he told the Herald. "There's no bread or medicine. In every corner of Venezuela, this socialist project has failed."

As John Otis reported for NPR, dissatisfaction with the ruling Socialist regime has been partly fueled by a scarcity of bread. Citing the Venezuelan Bread Makers Federation, John says that "due to a cash crunch, the Maduro government is importing only about 25 percent of the wheat that the country needs."

John reports that Maduro asserts that the scarcity is driven by mismanagement of flour by bakers seeking to undermine his government.

What's more, there has been little electoral outlet for protesters to voice displeasure with Maduro. Elections that had been planned for late last year were indefinitely postponed, and John reports a recall referendum — which could have removed Maduro — was canceled last year, as well.

About two weeks ago Venezuela's Supreme Court, which is filled with Maduro loyalists, backed down from its bid to nullify the opposition-dominated national assembly. The reversal came after overwhelming international criticism of the initial move.

Maduro's popularity has reached such a nadir, in fact, that the president was pelted with debris during a public appearance earlier this week. That bombardment was broadcast on Venezuelan TV.

And it's not likely to get easier for Maduro anytime soon.

The Venezuelan president enters his fifth year in power on April 19 — the same day demonstrators have promised to hold the "mother of all protests."</s>CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelans in poor areas blocked streets and lit fires during scattered protests across the country on Tuesday night, and two people were killed during the growing unrest in the midst of a crippling economic crisis.

In a worrying sign for leftist President Nicolas Maduro, groups in Caracas' traditionally pro-government hillside slums and low-income neighborhoods took to the streets, witnesses and opposition lawmakers reported.

Maduro foes were galvanized by footage of a crowd in the south-eastern Bolivar state heckling and throwing objects at the closely-protected leader during a rally on Tuesday, before state television cut off the broadcast.

In the western Lara state, two people, aged 14 and 36, were killed during unrest on Tuesday, according to opposition governor Henri Falcon, who said that after an energy blackout armed "infiltrators" and "delinquents" on motorcycles roamed the city.

"They go by neighborhoods and shoot people who are protesting," said Falcon, a former member of the ruling party, urging a negotiation to end Venezuela's political crisis.

The opposition says Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader who took office four years ago, has morphed into a dictator after a Supreme Court decision in late March to assume the functions of the opposition-led congress.

The court quickly overturned the most controversial part of its decision, but the move breathed new life into the fractured opposition movement.

Two young men had already been killed in protests during the last week, according to authorities. Many are bracing for further violence in a country that is racked by crime and has one of the world's highest murder rates.

Witnesses said residents of a number of working-class Caracas neighborhoods blocked streets with trash or burning debris on Tuesday night, describing confused street melees and clashes with security forces. The capital appeared calm on Wednesday morning, although some roads were charred and littered with broken glass.

Government officials did not provide an official account of the events, and the Information Ministry did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Maduro has said that under a veneer of pacifism, a U.S.-backed right-wing opposition is encouraging violent protests in a bid to topple his government and get its hands on Venezuela's oil wealth. His administration accuses the opposition of exaggerating the protests.

"You walk through Caracas today and all the streets are normal, but look at social media, and Caracas is ablaze, Caracas is blocked!" said Socialist Party official Aristobulo Isturiz in an interview with state television on Wednesday.

Maduro's adversaries are demanding the government call delayed state elections, which polls suggest would not go well for the ruling Socialists. They also want an early presidential vote after authorities quashed a recall referendum against Maduro last year.

A ban on opposition leader Henrique Capriles from holding office for 15 years drew broad criticism as he was seen as the opposition's best presidential hope.

But it is Venezuela's extended economic crisis that has ordinary people fuming.

Venezuelans have been suffering food and medicine shortages for months, leading many to skip meals or go without crucial treatment. Lines of hundreds form in front of supermarkets as people jostle for hours under the hot sun hoping price-controlled rice or flour will be delivered.

The crisis has especially hurt the poor, long the base of support of Maduro and his predecessor the late Hugo Chavez.

Protesters say they have also been encouraged by stronger condemnation from American and European nations in the last two weeks.

"We cannot accept that the regime is willing to sacrifice Venezuelan lives to remain in power," said Luis Almagro, the head of the Organization of American States, in a video posted on Wednesday, urging elections.

Another round of protests are planned for Thursday in Venezuela's more than 300 municipalities. Opposition leaders are calling for the "mother of all marches" on April 19.

Amid what the opposition coalition says is a crackdown on dissent, some 71 people were arrested on Tuesday, according to rights group Penal Forum.

In total, 364 people were arrested between April 4-12 during the most sustained protests since 2014, with 183 people still behind bars, the group added. A group of young men and teenagers were arrested for throwing "sharp objects" against Maduro's vehicle on Tuesday night, according to a report by a local National Guard division seen by Reuters. Local media reported lootings overnight in the working class bedroom community of Guarenas outside Caracas, as well as in parts of the capital. State officials have tweeted images and videos of demonstrators vandalizing public property and throwing rocks at police. Despite the spiking tensions, many in the opposition worry extended protests will not spur early or fair elections, but rather increase clashes in the already turbulent country. Major anti-government protests in 2014 eventually floundered, though the opposition at the time did not have as clear-cut demands, poor neighborhoods largely abstained, and the economy was in better shape.</s>A devotee of The Nazareno de San Plablo carries an image of the Christ outside of Santa Teresa Cathedral in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, April 12, 2017. The Nazareno de San Pablo is a sculpture from the XVII century and a part of Caracas' Holy Week celebrations.

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Thousands of people take to the streets in Caracas as Venezuelan authorities acknowledge a fifth death in the protests.