By Carlos Camacho
CARACAS -- Another demonstrator was killed Tuesday during protests against the embattled administration of Nicolas Maduro, as the opposition vows to keep denouncing what they call an “ongoing coup” on the part of the President.
Venezuela’s Attorney General’s Office said it was investigating the death “during a demonstration” of Engelbert Duque, 25, in the city of Tariba, in the state of Tachira, Venezuelan Andes. Attorney General Luisa Ortega said Tuesday morning during a press conference that 91 demonstrators and security forces have been killed in anti-government protests since April 6th.
WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NAMES
People in Maracaibo, the capital of oil-rich Zulia state, protested in the newly named “Paul Moreno” avenue. Moreno was a young paramedic, run over during a protest and killed only weeks ago. There are already two streets named after demonstrators killed in the 2017 protests, with Juan Pernalete also getting the street he was shot and killed in named after him in Caracas.
On Tuesday demonstrators again took to those streets and others in Venezuela, like they have been doing since April 1st blocking traffic, chanting anti-Maduro slogans and waving placards and Venezuelan flags. And while in Eastern Caracas They were repressed with tear-gas by the National Police in Caracas and with live gunfire from shadowy pro-government “colectivos” gangs in other parts of the country, according to local media and the opposition.
In Eastern Caracas, after six hours of “the great shutdown” (“El Gran Trancazo”, which is how this type of protests is dubbed) there were only minor confrontations between a minority of pro-Maduro provocateurs and some three hundred neighbors that had shut down an avenue to protest Maduro’s rule and his plans to ditch the present Constitution.
A young man was run over during the protest. The driver got away. He was sitting down, bruised leg and all, singing the Venezuelan national anthem, when the demonstrators removed the barricades and allowed traffic to flow again. He sang and then got a lift home from a neighbor.
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