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REUTERS
CARACAS
VENEZUELAN security forces fired tear gas as demonstrators staged what they billed as the"mother of all marches"against President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday, and a student caught up in a clash died after being shot in the head.
Opposition supporters protested in Caracas and other cities, denouncing Maduro for eroding democracy and plunging the economy into chaos. Crowds swelled to hundreds of thousands, including Maduro supporters who held a counter-demonstration in the capital at the urging of the president.
The dueling marches drew parallels to the clashes between pro and anti-government protesters in 2002 that triggered a brief coup against late president Hugo Chavez.
Carlos Moreno, 18, a student, was on his way to play soccer in Caracas and did not plan to take part in the demonstration when government supporters approached an opposition gathering and fired shots, according to witnesses and a family member. Moreno was shot in the head, they said.
Waving the country's red yellow and blue flags and shouting"No more dictatorship"and"Maduro out,"demonstrators clogged a stretch of the main highway in Caracas. Troops fired tear gas in Caracas neighborhoods and in the border city of San Cristobal.
"We have to protest because this country is dying of hunger said Alexis Mendoza, a 53-year-old administrator marching in the Caracas neighborhood of El Paraiso."There are a lot of people in the opposition and they are full of courage."
The protest followed a fortnight of violent protests, in which five people have been killed, triggered by a Supreme Court decision in March to assume the powers of the opposition-led Congress - which it quickly reversed under international pressure.
The court's move nonetheless fueled long-simmering anger over the ruling Socialist Party's handling of the economy.
