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Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
Two Venezuelans died from gunshot wounds during protests against socialist President Nicolas Maduro, witnesses and local media said Saturday, pushing the death toll from nearly two months of anti-government protests to 33.
Opposition demonstrators decrying soaring consumer prices and product shortages have vowed to remain in the streets until Maduro resigns, although there are few signs that the country's worst unrest in a decade will force him from office.
Argenis Hernandez, 26, was shot in the abdomen as he was demonstrating near a barricade in the central city of Valencia and died early Saturday in a nearby hospital, according to local media reports.
A motorcyclist attempted to cross the barricade and opened fire on demonstrators when they would not let him through, wounding Hernandez. Bus driver Wilfredo Rey, 31, died Friday night after being shot in the head during a confrontation between demonstrators and hooded gunmen in the convulsed western city of San Cristobal, according to residents of the neighborhood where the incident took place. Rey had not been involved in the protests, they said.
The threat of violence didn't deter tens of thousands of anti-government activists from marching peacefully in Caracas and other cities Saturday to demand an end to the use of force against dissents by what opponents have taken to calling Maduro's "dictatorship."
Street protests, which began in February, intensified after three people were killed following a Feb. 12 rally in downtown Caracas.
The demonstrations since then have ranged from peaceful marches and violent clashes between police and hooded protesters hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails. They have also involved street barricades made of burning trash and debris, snarling traffic and angering drivers of all political persuasions.
The weekend protests came a little more than a month after the arrest of Leopoldo Lopez, a leading voice of the opposition who was charged with conspiracy and arson tied to the first deadly protests.
A member of Lopez's Popular Will party, Carlos Vecchio, addressed the crowd in defiance of an arrest order while Lopez's wife, Lilian Tintori, read a letter penned from jail by her husband in which he calls on Maduro to resign and open the door to national reconciliation.
"Maduro, I want to tell you, and those who are with you, if you don't step aside, you'll have millions of Venezuelans on the streets and beyond fighting for the political change we deserve," the letter said.
In what has become a familiar ending to almost-daily demonstrations by the opposition, security forces fired tear gas and water cannons to drive away a few dozen students who tried to block a Caracas highway after most protesters went home. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Across town, Maduro addressed a much smaller rally called by loyalist students to complain about arson attacks that have kept several universities shut for weeks.
Maduro, the hand-picked successor of the late President Hugo Chavez, has denounced the protests as part of a U.S.-backed, "fascist" conspiracy to stir up violence and oust him just a few months after his party prevailed in nationwide municipal elections.
"These Chuckys are direct descendants of the Nazis," Maduro told the cheering crowd, referring to the diabolical toy doll of Hollywood horror movie fame that has become his favorite term to taunt his opponents.
With both sides showing no signs of backing off, the political balance increasingly hangs on the course of the economy, which is struggling despite high prices for oil that account for more than 90 percent of Venezuela's exports. Many economists are forecasting a recession this year, with no end in sight for widespread shortages of basic goods and galloping inflation that hit 57 percent in February.
The protests have exacerbated the economic woes, forcing businesses to shutter for fear of violence and even leading Air Canada to suspend flights to the country. Maduro on Friday estimated damage caused by the protests at $10 billion.
Wire services
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