Another Death in Venezuela Protests amid Opposition Violence

A woman has died from injuries inflicted during a protest in Venezuela, making her the latest of several victims of fatalities in recent weeks since the right-wing opposition began a series marches in Caracas, which have often turned violent, to demand the ouster of President Nicolas Maduro.

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Venezuelan Interior Minister Nestor Reverol announced Sunday that Almelina Carrillo Virguez had died while receiving intensive care in a Caracas hospital.

Forty-seven-year-old Carrillo was hit in the head with a frozen water bottle that was thrown from a high floor of a building while she was walking next to a group of Maduro supporters during a pro-government march in the La Candelaria neighborhood in central Caracas.

The march on April 19 was headed to a demonstration on the central Bolivar Avenue, organized to reject the interventionist attempts by the local and international right-wing to destabilize the government.

According to reporters from RT in Caracas, several opposition supporters threw heavy objects from the top of buildings against Chavistas demonstrators.

Maduro presented a video in which a woman, believed to be Carrillo, falls to the ground after being hit while walking through the center of the city, as both followers and opponents of the government organized marches.

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During the demonstrations, which saw tens of thousands of people march for and against the government, right-wing supporters clashed with police when they attempted to break police cordons and head to areas of the city where pro-government demonstrators were gathered. Police routinely work to keep opposing marches separated during such large demonstrations to prevent confrontations between government supporters and the opposition as political tensions run high.

The announcement of Carrillo's death came just hours before the start of a new wave of protests called by the opposition against the Maduro government.

In the past three weeks of repeated protests, hundreds have been injured and at least 23 people have died, including Carrillo. Among the deaths, six have been attributed to opposition protesters and nine victims were opposition protesters who were electrocuted on April 20 when they attempted to break into the El Valle bakery that had an electric gate. Three of the deaths were not directly related to the protests.

Maduro has called for a broad dialogue, which the opposition has rejected and in turn demanded his removal from office.