Venezuela releases 156 protesters

Venezuelan courts have ordered 11 student protesters to stand trial, but they have freed more than 150 others arrested with them during raids on their encampments, prosecutors said Sunday.

The statement from prosecutor's office said the 11 face charges including weapons offenses, criminal association and incitement to violate laws, as well as drug violations.

But it said 156 others will be freed, though they will have to report periodically to the courts. And prosecutors asked that 15 be sent for treatment of drug use. Some protesters were freed earlier.

Hundreds of police and troops arrested 243 student protesters during pre-dawn raids Thursday on four encampments of protesters opposed to President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government.

The dismantling of the camps was announced just hours before a top opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, was scheduled to appear in court after being in custody since February. The hearing on whether he should begin trial on charges of inciting violence at anti-government protests was suspended and he was taken back to a military prison almost as soon as he arrived at the courthouse downtown.

That set off angry clashes in which one police officer was killed, raising the death toll from disturbances that began in February to at least 42.

Anti-Maduro protests have been raging since February, with activists complaining about a grueling economic crisis marked by 57 percent inflation, high crime rates, scarcities of basic goods, and repression of opponents.

Maduro, the 51-year-old successor to the late Hugo Chavez, says the demonstrations are part of a wider, U.S.-backed "coup" attempt against him.

Wire services