The death toll in anti-government protests in Venezuela since April has reached 100, after a third death was reported from a day-long nationwide strike against embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's rule, prosecutors said Friday. A 15-year-old boy was killed in skirmishes on the sidelines of Thursday's national strike in the western state of Zulia, they said, without explaining the circumstances of his death.
Venezuela is in the throes of a political and economic crisis that has led to shortages of basic goods and soaring inflation. Protesters are now contesting Maduro's plans to rewrite the country's constitution. On Thursday, businesses were shuttered, public transport stalled and streets were often deserted in areas affected by the stoppage in the capital and elsewhere, including the country's second-biggest city of Maracaibo.
Riot police and soldiers fired tear gas and buck shot at protesters, who blocked streets with debris in parts of Caracas and set a police booth on fire. Street blockades continued overnight. Earlier, prosecutors said a 24-year-old man was killed on the outskirts of Caracas and a 23-year-old man was killed in the city of Valencia. Maduro is under fire over plans for a July 30 election of a citizens' body - a "Constituent Assembly" - to rewrite the constitution.
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