In his passport photo, Carlos Naranjo Moreno is chubby-faced, a healthy twenty-something from a middle class Venezuelan family in the Andean town of Merida. Now, he is gaunt, his clothes hanging off his almost 6 foot 5 frame, ribs painfully visible when he removes his shirt.

The son of a university professor and himself a former chef at a government hotel who cooked for prominent Chavistas, Mr Naranjo seems an unlikely candidate for the growing ranks of Venezuelans forced to flee their country due to hunger.

But he too has fallen victim to the humanitarian crisis which has engulfed Venezuela amid hyperinflation and critical shortages of food and medicine. His father died after open heart surgery...</s>Riot police and pro-government vigilantes fought running battles in Caracas with protesters demanding the ouster of President Nicolas Maduro

The death toll in three weeks of violence at anti-government protests in Venezuela jumped to 20 people after a night of clashes and pillaging left 12 people dead in Caracas.

Riot police and pro-government vigilantes fought running battles with protesters demanding the ouster of President Nicolas Maduro on the capital's east, west and south sides, witnesses said.

"It was like a war," said 33-year-old construction worker Carlos Yanez, a resident of the southwestern district of El Valle.

"The police were firing tear gas, armed civilians were shooting guns at buildings. My family and I threw ourselves to the floor. It was horrible," he told AFP.

Eleven people were killed in the neighborhood, according to officials.

Eight of them were reportedly electrocuted while trying to loot a bakery amid the chaos. The rest were shot.

At nightfall on Friday, more protests and pockets of unrest were reported in eastern Caracas, and in Macuto in the neighboring state of Vargas. There was a heavy security presence in the city.

Police fired teargas to disperse crowds in the Caracas district of Palo Verde, where burning barricades of trash were set up. Armed men on motorbikes also sparked panic, witnesses told AFP.

- Hospital evacuated -

The opposition accuses the government of sending gangs of armed thugs to attack them.

Videos shot by El Valle residents on Thursday night showed people throwing bottles and other objects out their windows at the gunmen in the streets below, shouting "Murderers!"

At one point, street protesters hurling Molotov cocktails managed to set fire to one of the armored police trucks firing tear gas at them, lighting up the night sky.

Fifty-four people, including newborn babies, were evacuated from a maternity hospital in the neighborhood.

There were conflicting explanations about the reason.

The government said "armed gangs hired by the opposition" had attacked the hospital. The opposition rejected the allegation, saying the children had to be evacuated because of tear gas fired by Maduro's "dictatorship."

The hospital's director, Rosalinda Prieto, told AFP the evacuation was prompted by the stench of burning trash set on fire by protesters.

A man was shot dead in protests in the eastern neighborhood of Petare, the local mayor said. Prosecutors said they had opened an investigation.

Opposition leaders have called new protests for Saturday and Monday.

On Saturday, they plan to march in silence to the Catholic Church's episcopal seats nationwide. They plan to erect roadblocks on Monday to grind the country to a halt.

- Maduro sees US plot -

Protesters blame Maduro -- heir of the leftist "Bolivarian revolution" launched by the late Hugo Chavez in 1999 -- for an economic crisis marked by severe shortages of food, medicine and basic goods.

Maduro says the protests against him are part of a US-backed coup plot.

On Thursday, he said the opposition had agreed to new talks. But his opponents denied the claim, saying the only way forward was to call elections.

Senior opposition leader Henrique Capriles slammed Maduro as a "dictator" and "mythomaniac."

Pressure on Maduro has been mounting since 2014, as falling prices for Venezuela's crucial oil exports have sent the once-booming economy into a tailspin.

The crisis escalated on March 30, when the Supreme Court moved to seize the powers of the legislature, the only lever of state authority not controlled by Maduro and his allies.

The court partly backtracked after an international outcry, but tension only increased when the authorities slapped a political ban on Capriles two weeks ago.

According to pollster Venebarometro, seven in 10 Venezuelans disapprove of Maduro, whose term does not end until 2019.</s>Eleven people were killed in violent incidents in Caracas overnight, Venezuela’s justice ministry said on Friday, following two days of massive street protests against President Nicolas Maduro.

The deaths occurred in the capital’s southwestern El Valle district, the ministry said in a statement, adding six people were also wounded.

The toll brings to 20 the number of people killed in three weeks of violent anti-Maduro demonstrations.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App now</s>CARACAS, April 21 (Reuters) - Eight people were electrocuted to death during a looting incident in Caracas, a firefighter said on Friday, amid violent protests against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by opponents accusing him of seeking to create a dictatorship.

The accident occurred when a group of looters broke into a bakery in the working class neighborhood of El Valle, according the firefighter, who asked not be identified. It was not immediately possible to confirm details of the incident with hospital or other officials.

The public prosecutor's office said later on Friday it was investigating 11 deaths in El Valle, adding that "some" victims had died from being electrocuted.

Nine other people have been killed in violence associated with a wave of anti-government demonstrations in the past three weeks in which protesters have clashed with security forces in melees lasting well into the night.

"Yesterday around 9 or 10 (p.m.)things got pretty scary, a group of people carrying weapons came down ... and started looting," said Hane Mustafa, owner of a small supermarket in El Valle, where broken bottles of soy sauce and ketchup littered the floor between bare shelves.

"The security situation is not in the hands of the government. We lost everything here," said Mustafa, who said he could hear the looting from his home, which is adjacent to the store.

Dozens of businesses in the area showed signs of looting, ranging from empty shelves to broken windows and twisted metal entrance gates.

The Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for details.

Security forces patrolled much of Caracas on Friday, including El Valle.

Maduro's government is so far resisting the pressure of the most serious protests in three years as opposition leaders push a series of political demands, drawing support from a public angered by the country's collapsing economy.

Ruling Socialist Party leaders describe the protesters as hoodlums who are damaging public property and disrupting public order to overthrow the government with the support of ideological adversaries in Washington.

"This wounded and failed opposition is trying to generate chaos in key areas of the city and convince the world that we're in some sort of civil war, the same playbook used for Syria, for Libya and for Iraq," said Socialist Party official Freddy Bernal in an internet broadcast at 1:00 a.m.

Opposition leaders have promised to keep up their protests, demanding that Maduro's government call general elections, free almost 100 jailed opposition activists and respect the autonomy of the opposition-led Congress.

They are calling for community-level protests across the country on Friday, a white-clad "silent" march in Caracas on Saturday to commemorate those killed in the unrest, and a nationwide "sit-in" blocking Venezuela's main roads on Monday.

Daniela Alvarado, 25, who sells vegetables in the El Valle area, said the looting on Thursday night began after police officers fired tear gas and buckshot at demonstrators blocking a street with burning tires.

"People starting looting the businesses and yelling that they were hungry and that they want the government out," said Alvarado. "We're afraid (the stores) are going to run out of everything, that tomorrow there won't be any food."

Separately, a man was killed by a gunshot in the Caracas slum of Petare on Thursday night, municipal mayor Carlos Ocariz said on Friday.

The OPEC nation's economy has been in free-fall since the collapse of oil prices in 2014. The generous oil-financed welfare state created by late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, Maduro's predecessor, has given way to a Soviet-style economy marked by consumer shortages, triple-digit inflation and snaking supermarket lines.

Many Venezuelans say they have to skip meals in order to feed their children.

Public anger at the situation spilled over last month when the Supreme Court, which is seen as close to the government, briefly assumed the powers of the Congress. The protests were further fueled when the government barred the opposition's best-known leader, two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, from holding public office. (Additional reporting by Carlos Garcia and Brian Ellsworth; Writing by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Alexandra Ulmer and Frances Kerry)</s>She said the attackers then tried to enter the hospital, at which point they called the authorities for help. The children have been relocated to other medical facilities in Caracas.

A man was shot dead in Petare, Caracas’s largest shantytown and one of several other neighbourhoods to be hit by violence overnight on Thursday. Carlos Ocariz, the opposition mayor of Sucre, where Petare is located, named the man as Melvin Guaitan, a “humble neighborhood worker”, and demanded an investigation.

The circumstances of the shooting were not immediately clear.

Nine people have now been killed and hundreds injured during three weeks of nationwide demonstrations against the government of Nicolas Maduro, the heir to the Leftist “Bolivarian Revolution” begun by the late Hugo Chavez.

Two university students and a National Guard officer died on Wednesday during nationwide protests dubbed ‘The Mother of All Marches”. Witnesses to the student deaths said armed groups of government supporters known as colectivos were responsible; the National Guard officer was allegedly shot by a sniper.

Protesters are demanding an end to what they say has become a dictatorship, insisting the government call local elections delayed from last year, hold an early presidential vote, free jailed opposition politicians and rescind electoral bans on others.

They accuse Mr Maduro of leading the oil-rich nation into economic disaster, with hyperinflation and critical shortages of food, medicine and even fuel leaving many Venezuelans struggling for survival.

Mr Maduro blames right wing “saboteurs” for orchestrating Venezuela’s crisis and has accused the opposition of fomenting a coup with the backing of the United States.</s>About 50 children were evacuated from a Caracas hospital Thursday which the Venezuelan government blamed on an attack by armed gangs but the opposition attributed to tear gas used to quell unrest.

As protests and looting continued into the night following another day of clashes between police and demonstrators in the capital, the government and opposition traded blows over the events at the maternity hospital.

Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez criticised those involved in the incident. 'I denounce before the international community that armed gangs hired by the opposition attacked a maternity hospital with 54 children.

But Freddy Guevara, an opposition leader, rejected the allegation, calling Rodriguez 'irresponsible' and saying the evacuations were 'the fault of tear gas bombs of your dictatorship'.

Demonstrators have vowed not to flinch in their campaign to oust Maduro, despite three weeks of protest violence that has left eight people dead, including three on Wednesday.

Earlier Thursday police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up thousands of marchers as they reached a vital freeway in Caracas, then edged back slightly as masked protesters pelted them with stones and Molotov cocktails.

Protesters blame Maduro - heir of the leftist 'Bolivarian revolution' launched by the late Hugo Chavez in 1999 - for an economic crisis marked by severe shortages of food, medicine and basic goods.

Maduro says the protests seeking to oust him are backed by the United States.

On Thursday, Maduro said the opposition was ready to begin a political dialogue, which his opponents denied.

Demonstrators have vowed there will be no let-up in their action against the regime they despise.

Student Aquiles Aldazoro, 22, said: 'Sure we're tired, but we've got to stand strong. I'm ready to take to the streets every day if I have to.'

Protesters set fire to bins and tore down a billboard to barricade themselves in, as officers fired water cannon at them and a police helicopter hovered overhead.

'I don't care if I inhale gas, I don't care if I die. We have to put a stop to this murdering, repressing government,' said Natasha Borges, 17.

One protester, completely naked except for sneakers, walked up to police and shouted: 'Please, stop gas-bombing us.'

He asked officers to allow the protesters to assemble peacefully, and held out a Bible.

Venezuelan Interior Minister Nestor Reverol has blamed an opposition party for the killing of a 23-year-old woman amid ongoing protests in the South American country.

Reverol said Thursday that Paola Ramirez was killed on Wednesday by a member of Vente Venezuela, a party led by high-profile opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.

Vente Venezuela did not immediately respond to the accusation. Machado said the government was trying to blame her party for the killing of a young woman that the administration itself was responsible for.

Ramirez was killed over the past day in the restive western border city of San Cristobal amid protests that also left two others dead - a teenage boy reportedly on his way to a soccer match with friends, and a National Guard officer whose unit was attacked.

The minister said a preliminary investigation suggests that the Vente Venezuela attack on Ramirez was planned in advance.

San Cristobal Mayor Patricia Gutierrez has said that Ramirez was shot to death by people who appeared to be government supporters.

In spite of the huge protests, experts believe that until people in the country's huge slums rise up, Maduro will remain in power.

Labourer Alfonzo Molero, who lives in a slum in Maracaibo, told the Wall Street Journal: 'All I have is hunger - I don’t care if the people protest or not. With what strength will I protest if my stomach is empty since yesterday?'

Venezuela's opposition renewed nationwide protests yesterday calling for elections and measures to improve the collapsing economy, a day after three people were killed in similar demonstrations.

However, crowds were smaller than the hundreds of thousands of people who flooded the streets of Caracas and provincial cities on Wednesday, the latest and largest in several weeks of protests against what Maduro's opponents condemn as a lurch toward dictatorship.

The spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says that the organization is 'concerned' about what's happening in Venezuela and urges that 'all efforts be made to lower tensions and prevent further clashes'.

A statement issued Thursday by spokesman Stephane Dujarric calls on the Venezuelan government and opposition to 'engage sincerely to reactivate dialogue efforts', especially on issues such as the balance of power among branches of government, the electoral calendar, human rights, truth and justice and the country's socio-economic situation.

Government officials dismiss the protests, characterized by street barricades and clashes with security forces, as violent and lawless efforts to overthrow Maduro's leftist government with the backing of ideological adversaries in Washington.

The opposition counters that Maduro, deeply unpopular as Venezuelans grapple with triple-digit inflation and shortages of food and basic consumer goods, is seeking to stay in power indefinitely by barring opposition leaders from office and quashing independent state institutions.

At around midday yesterday, a few thousand people protested in Caracas, although opposition lawmakers accused security forces of using excessive tear gas and force to block the marches.

'It's time for the armed forces to realize that they're protecting corrupt leaders and not the Venezuelan people,' said opposition lawmaker Jorge Millan, who represents part of the poor hilltop Caracas neighborhood of 23 de Enero, once a government stronghold.

The opposition had called on its supporters to gather at about two dozen points around Caracas and march to the office of the state ombudsman, a human rights activist, just as they tried to do on Wednesday.

The current wave of marches, the most sustained protests against Maduro since 2014, has sparked regular melees in which youths and National Guard troops exchange volleys of rocks and tear gas.

There were also late-night barricades and some looting in Caracas' middle class neighborhood of El Paraiso on Wednesday night.

Two students and a National Guard sergeant were killed in Wednesday's demonstrations, bringing the death toll in demonstrations this month to eight. Rights group Penal Forum said more than 500 people were arrested in relation to Wednesday's protest and 334 remained in detention.

"We are concerned about the latest developments in Venezuela and urge that all efforts be made to lower tensions and prevent further clashes," a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement on Thursday.

Maduro, 54, called on his backers to stage counter-demonstrations in Caracas on Wednesday. Supporters of the president, who was elected in 2013 and assumed the socialist mantle of late leader Hugo Chavez, say the opposition's street protests are violent disruptions of public order that exceed the rights of free assembly and would not be tolerated in any other country.

General Motors became the latest corporation to have a factory or other asset seized by the government of Venezuela, and the Detroit automaker faces an uphill battle to recover any damages. GM said Thursday that its only factory in Venezuela was confiscated a day earlier, as anti-government protesters clashed with authorities in a country that is roiled by economic troubles. GM said assets such as vehicles were taken from the plant, causing the company irreparable damage. The seizure is the latest in a long string of government confiscations of factories and other assets that have been a staple of the so-called 21st century socialist revolution in Venezuela started by the late Hugo Chavez two decades ago. Venezuela is currently fighting claims of illegal asset seizures at a World Bank-sponsored arbitration panel from more than 25 companies. GM vowed to defend itself legally but getting compensated could be difficult. Under Chavez, Venezuela seized some Exxon Mobil assets. The oil giant sought compensation of $16.6 billion. The company won a $1.4 billion judgment, but earlier this year the arbitration panel determined that Venezuela had to pay only $180 million. Auto production in Venezuela has nearly ground to a halt amid the country's economic collapse. The cash-strapped government has choked off car companies' access to dollars needed to import parts and repatriate profits. GM's factory in the industrial city of Valencia did not produce a single vehicle last year. Nationwide, car makers assembled just 2,849 cars in 2016, from a peak of 172,218 in 2007. Still, many car makers have stayed put in case the economy experiences a turnaround. GM has about 2,700 workers in Venezuela, where it's been the market leader for over 35 years. It also has 79 dealers that employ 3,900 people. The factory seizure arose from an almost 20-year-old lawsuit brought by a former GM dealership in western Venezuela. The dealership had been seeking damages from GM of 476 million bolivars - about $665 million at the official exchange rate, but just $115 million on the black market where many Venezuelans are forced to turn to sell their increasingly worthless currency. GM said it was notified this week that a low-level court ordered an embargo of its plant, bank accounts and other assets in the country. Hundreds of workers desperate for information about their jobs gathered at the plant on Thursday to meet with government and military officials, as well as representatives of the dealership that brought the lawsuit. The Venezuelan government had no comment about the GM factory. In Washington, the State Department said in a statement that it was reviewing details of the factory seizure and called on Venezuelan authorities to resolve the case "rapidly and transparently." The statement said a fair judicial system is critical to economic reforms that would restore growth, but it made no mention of any action the U.S. government might take.</s>CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — At least 12 people were killed overnight following looting and violence in Venezuela’s capital amid a spiraling political crisis, authorities said Friday.

Most of the deaths took place in El Valle, a working class neighborhood near Caracas’ biggest military base where opposition leaders say 13 people were hit with an electrical current while trying to loot a bakery protected by an electric fence.

Two days of massive protests on the streets of Caracas against the government of President Nicolas Maduro spilled into a violent night in several parts of the city, with residents in El Valle witnessing repetitive gunfire, street barricades set aflame and more than a dozen businesses looted. Amid the confusion, mothers and newborn children had to be evacuated from a maternity hospital named after the late leader Hugo Chavez when it was swamped with tear gas.

The Public Ministry said the violence left 11 people dead in El Valle, all men between the ages of 17 and 45. Another death was reported east of Caracas in El Sucre. Six others were injured.

Opposition leaders blamed the government for repressing protesters with tear gas but standing idly by as businesses were looted. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez pointed the finger at the opposition, saying armed groups controlled by them were responsible for the attack at the hospital.

“We reject and do not accept those irresponsible declarations,” said Henrique Capriles, a former presidential candidate who the government recently barred from running for public office.

Earlier Friday, officials reported that one of the dead was Mervins Guitian. The young Venezuelan man was fatally shot when he was returning home late from work on Thursday and got caught in the middle of late-night street clashes. Vicente Paez, a local councilman, said Guitian was an employee of a Caracas-area city governed by an opposition mayor and didn’t join the protests. It wasn’t clear who shot him and there was no immediate comment from authorities.

Venezuelan social media was ablaze late into the night with grainy cellphone videos of light-armored vehicles plowing down dark streets to control pockets of protesters who set up burning barricades in several neighborhoods.

The opposition said they have no intention of pulling back on protests demanding new elections that were triggered when the government-stacked Supreme Court three weeks ago gutted congress of its last vestiges of power, a move that was later reversed amid a storm of international criticism.

Protesters are angry at what they see as a government that has essentially become a dictatorship responsible for triple-digit inflation, rising crime and food shortages.

“Twenty days of resistance and we feel newly born,” said opposition lawmaker Freddy Guevara during an evening, outdoor press conference as residents looking out from balconies in an eastern Caracas neighborhood at the heart of the protest movement cheered loudly in support.

The next planned protest is Saturday, when opponents are being asked to dress in white and march silently to commemorate the victims of the demonstration. There’s also a sit-in to block major highways planned for Monday.

General Motors announced early Thursday that it was closing its operations in Venezuela after authorities seized its factory in the industrial city of Valencia, a move that could draw the Trump administration into the escalating chaos engulfing the nation.

A number of major Latin American governments, including Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, called on Venezuela to take steps to increase democratic order and halt the violence that has been swirling around the protests. Across the country, clashes have been intense as protests grow in size and fervor.

The Supreme Court ruling reinvigorated Venezuela’s fractious opposition, which had been struggling to channel growing disgust with Maduro over widespread food shortages, triple-digit inflation and rampant crime.

Opponents are pushing for Maduro’s removal through early elections and the release of dozens of political prisoners. The government last year abruptly postponed regional elections that the opposition was heavily favored to win and it cut off a petition drive aimed at forcing a referendum seeking Maduro’s removal before elections scheduled for late next year.

But the government hasn’t backed down.

Already drawing criticism for the GM seizure, Maduro announced late Thursday that he wanted an investigation into cellphone operator Movistar for allegedly being part of the “coup-minded march” organized by his adversaries Wednesday. That march was the largest and most dramatic the country has seen in years. He said the subsidiary of Spain’s Telefonica “sent millions of messages to users every two hours” in support of Wednesday’s protests.

As tensions mount, the government is using its almost-complete control of Venezuela’s institutions to pursue its opponents. On Wednesday alone, 565 protesters were arrested nationwide, according to Penal Forum, a local group that provides legal assistance to detainees. It said 334 remained in jail Thursday.

Associated Press photographer Juan Carlos Hernandez in Valencia, AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher in Detroit, and Christine Armario in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.

More Associated Press reporting on Venezuela’s problems can be found at https://www.ap.org/explore/venezuela-undone .</s>CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — At least 12 people were killed overnight following looting and violence in Venezuela’s capital amid a spiraling political crisis, authorities said Friday.

Most of the deaths took place in El Valle, a working class neighborhood near Caracas’ biggest military base where opposition leaders say a group of people were hit with an electrical current while trying to loot a bakery protected by an electric fence.

Two days of massive protests on the streets of Caracas against the government of President Nicolas Maduro spilled into a violent night in several parts of the city, with residents in El Valle witnessing repetitive gunfire, street barricades set aflame and more than a dozen businesses looted. Amid the confusion, mothers and newborn children had to be evacuated from a maternity hospital named after the late leader Hugo Chavez when it was swamped with tear gas.

The Public Ministry said the violence left 11 people dead in El Valle, all men between the ages of 17 and 45. Another death was reported east of Caracas in El Sucre. Six others were injured.

Opposition leaders blamed the government for repressing protesters with tear gas but standing idly by as businesses were looted. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez pointed the finger at the opposition, saying armed groups controlled by them were responsible for the attack at the hospital.

“We reject and do not accept those irresponsible declarations,” said Henrique Capriles, a former presidential candidate who the government recently barred from running for public office.

Earlier Friday, officials reported that one of the dead was Mervins Guitian. The young Venezuelan man was fatally shot when he was returning home late from work on Thursday and got caught in the middle of late-night street clashes. Vicente Paez, a local councilman, said Guitian was an employee of a Caracas-area city governed by an opposition mayor and didn’t join the protests. It wasn’t clear who shot him and there was no immediate comment from authorities.

Venezuelan social media was ablaze late into the night with grainy cellphone videos of light-armored vehicles plowing down dark streets to control pockets of protesters who set up burning barricades in several neighborhoods.

Vice President Tareck El Aissami said Friday the country is facing an “unconventional war” led by opposition groups working in concert with criminal gangs. He said opposition claims government forces were responsible for launching tear gas at the maternity hospital were another attempt to demoralize a people who have “decided to break ties with the bourgeoisie forever.”

Overall, at least 20 people have been killed in the unrest generated after the government-stacked Supreme Court gutted congress of its last vestiges of power three weeks ago — a move later reversed amid a storm of international criticism. Opposition members say they do not intend to ease up on protests demanding new elections as they decry a government they deem a dictatorship responsible for triple-digit inflation, rising crime and food shortages.

“Twenty days of resistance and we feel newly born,” said opposition lawmaker Freddy Guevara during an evening, outdoor press conference as residents looking out from balconies in an eastern Caracas neighborhood at the heart of the protest movement cheered loudly in support.

The next planned protest is Saturday, when opponents are being asked to dress in white and march silently to commemorate the victims of the demonstration. There’s also a sit-in to block major highways planned for Monday.

General Motors announced early Thursday that it was closing its operations in Venezuela after authorities seized its factory in the industrial city of Valencia, a move that could draw the Trump administration into the escalating chaos engulfing the nation.

A number of major Latin American governments, including Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, called on Venezuela to take steps to increase democratic order and halt the violence that has been swirling around the protests. Across the country, clashes have been intense as protests grow in size and fervor.

The Supreme Court ruling reinvigorated Venezuela’s fractious opposition, which had been struggling to channel growing disgust with Maduro over widespread food shortages, triple-digit inflation and rampant crime.

Opponents are pushing for Maduro’s removal through early elections and the release of dozens of political prisoners. The government last year abruptly postponed regional elections that the opposition was heavily favored to win and it cut off a petition drive aimed at forcing a referendum seeking Maduro’s removal before elections scheduled for late next year.

But the government hasn’t backed down.

Already drawing criticism for the GM seizure, Maduro announced late Thursday that he wanted an investigation into cellphone operator Movistar for allegedly being part of the “coup-minded march” organized by his adversaries Wednesday. That march was the largest and most dramatic the country has seen in years. He said the subsidiary of Spain’s Telefonica “sent millions of messages to users every two hours” in support of Wednesday’s protests.

As tensions mount, the government is using its almost-complete control of Venezuela’s institutions to pursue its opponents. On Wednesday alone, 565 protesters were arrested nationwide, according to Penal Forum, a local group that provides legal assistance to detainees. It said 334 remained in jail Thursday.

Associated Press photographer Juan Carlos Hernandez in Valencia, AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher in Detroit, and Christine Armario in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.

More Associated Press reporting on Venezuela’s problems can be found at https://www.ap.org/explore/venezuela-undone .</s>MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – More than 20 people were taken to the hospital amid anti-government protests in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, the country’s National Assembly deputy Jose Manuel Olivares said.

"13 electrocuted patients arrived [at the hospital], of whom 8 died and 1 is in grave condition!" Olivares wrote on Twitter on Friday, adding in another post that "Also came 8 patients injured by gunfire, 1 died in the emergency department of the University Hospital of Caracas."

Earlier on Friday, local media reported that the death toll from ongoing protests against the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro stood at 10, with one person having been killed overnight in Caracas.

Executive Director of Venezuelan NGO (non-governmental organization) Foro Penal (Criminal Forum) Alfredo Romero wrote on Twitter on Friday that 1,289 people have been arrested amid protests in Venezuela since April 4.

Venezuelan National Assembly deputy Marialbert Barrios said on Thursday that a total of 585 people were arrested during anti-government demonstrations on Wednesday and Thursday.

Mass anti-government protests started in Venezuela at the beginning of April after the country’s Supreme Court decided to take on the legislative functions of the National Assembly, which is currently controlled by the opposition. The court’s decision was reversed, but protesters remained on the streets, demanding the resignation of the court’s members.</s>At least three people were killed in Venezuela when clashes broke out during anti-government protests described by opposition leaders as the “mother of all marches.”

Supporters of President Nicolas Maduro also held a counter rally Wednesday as opposition marchers gathered in the streets.

An hour into the march in Caracas, a 17-year-old boy was shot in the head, according to the Venezuela’s public ministry, which said it had started investigating the incident. The teenager, later identified as Carlos Moreno, died while undergoing surgery, a hospital representative told CNN.

Moreno’s sister, Alejandra, said Carlos studied economics at Venezuelan Central University in Caracas. Instead of joining the marches, she said, he was on the way to play soccer.

Video posted on social media showed a young man on the ground in the San Bernardino neighborhood — a pool of blood near his head — surrounded by marchers. A woman is heard yelling, “They’ve killed him.”

The ministry said it was also investigating the Wednesday afternoon shooting death of Paola Andreina Ramírez Gómez, 23, in plaza San Carlos in San Cristóbal, Tachira state.

Jorban Contreras, a paramedic and director of the civil protection unit in Tachira, said the woman lost a lot of blood and was already dead from a gunshot wound to her chest when he arrived.

In a third death, Venezuelan National Guard Sgt. Niumar Jose San Clemente Barrios was fatally shot Wednesday night, said the public prosecutor’s office and Venezuela’s top human rights official, ombudsman Tarek William Saab. A second guardsman was wounded by a bullet, the officials said. Both were shot during “violent protests” in the municipality of Los Salias, south of the nation’s capital, according to Saab.

The public prosecutor’s office has called for an investigation into the shooting.

Maduro: Don’t complain when law comes after you

Maduro, who along with his supporters called for the countermarch, had deployed the Venezuelan armed forces to the streets on Sunday night amid rising tensions.

He gave a fiery speech on Wednesday, accusing the opposition leaders of inciting violence. He called out the President of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, Julio Borges, saying “You are the head of the coup. Later, don’t complain when the law comes after you.”

Wednesday’s marches underscored the widening political rifts in the country, where the opposition has accused Maduro of creating a dictatorship in the last few years. The government has repeatedly blocked any attempts by the opposition to oust Maduro from power by a referendum vote. It has also delayed local and state elections.

The opposition called for another march on Thursday, using the same strategy from the day before when protesters started their march at 26 different points throughout Caracas and converged at the office of the ombudsman, the government’s top human rights official.

Government supporters and security forces on Wednesday succeeded in blocking marchers from reaching certain parts of the city, according to observers. Throughout the day, water cannons and tear gas canisters were unleashed on opposition marchers.

Video posted on social media showed marchers — some covering their faces — crossing the narrow Guaire River in the nation’s capital in attempts to elude tear gas blasts.

The video was posted by David Smolansky, mayor of the municipality of El Hatillo and an opposition leader.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson expressed concerns to reporters Wednesday that the “government of Maduro is violating its own constitution and is not allowing the opposition to have their voices heard, nor allowing them to organize in a way that expresses the views of the Venezuelan people.”

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said via Twitter on Wednesday that he had directed his country’s exterior ministry to ask the UN Secretary General to address what he called the “worrying militarization of Venezuelan society.”

What the opposition wants

The last vote held in Venezuela, the parliamentary election of 2015, gave the opposition a majority. Critics say any elections since have been delayed because Maduro is afraid of the outcome.

Then, on March 29, the Venezuelan Supreme Court dissolved the Parliament, transferring all legislative powers to itself. By doing away with the opposition-controlled legislative branch, the move effectively meant the remaining two branches of Venezuelan government were controlled by the ruling United Socialist Party. The opposition was outraged and called the move a coup. The decision was reversed three days later, but by that time protests had already erupted.

The protests have been bloody. Six people have died and countless others, many journalists, have been injured.

The opposition call became even stronger when, on April 7, the government notified main opposition leader Henrique Capriles that he had been banned from doing any political work for 15 years. The 44-year-old governor, who has run for president twice, said the government was again acting like a dictatorship.

Maduro, 54, has been defiant. Instead of taking steps to reduce tensions with the opposition, he has taken a confrontational tone with members of the opposition and protesters, whom he calls “vandals and terrorists.”

Opposition leaders have called for the National Assembly’s powers to be fully restored, for all the political prisoners to be freed, for a humanitarian corridor to be opened and for the stalled elections to take place.

Unemployment, meanwhile, is set to surpass 25% this year, possibly on its way to 28% next year. It was at 7.4% in 2015.

Venezuela’s economy shrank 18% last year, its third year of recession. It is expected to be in the red this year and next.

The country’s food shortages have become severe in the last couple of years. Venezuelans have endured weeks, in some cases months, without basics like milk, eggs, flour, soap and toilet paper.

When there is food and water on the shelves, prices are so high that few Venezuelans can afford it. Many have taken to eating out of the trash.

Medicine also remains in short supply. Venezuelans hunt for penicillin and other remedies at pharmacies everywhere, often without success. The country’s public hospitals have fallen apart, causing people, including infants, to die because of the scarcity of basic medical care.

Venezuela recently asked the United Nations for help to relieve serious shortages of medicines in the country.
Venezuelan authorities report 12 people were killed overnight in the capital Caracas, mostly in the El Valle working class neighborhood where 54 people, including newborn babies, were forced to evacuate a maternity hospital. Others have fled to Colombia. This death toll during the three weeks of anti-government protests is 20.