Violent clashes in Venezuela as demonstrators denounce 'dictatorship'

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"There will be no rest", Capriles promised on Twitter.

There was no immediate comment from authorities.

Police fired tear gas at these demonstrators, and they fought back by throwing rocks, AFP reporters observed.

Capriles has been leading calls for a referendum on President Nicolas Maduro.

"Capriles is much bigger than them", said Rincones, who clutched a sign that read "Venezuela is wounded in the heart with hunger, misery, corruption, dictatorship".

"The only one who is disqualified in this country is Nicolas Maduro".

"My dear friends - Henry, Freddy, all of you who are here - today it's me, but tomorrow they'll come for you", he said, in reference to high-profile legislator Henry Ramos and deputy congress chief Freddy Guevara.

The two-time presidential candidate said on Friday the order stripping him of his ability to run in future elections only strengthens his resolve to resist on the streets.

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Outraged dissidents called the shooting, which occurred at the end of daylong demonstrations in Caracas, yet another sign of the violent oppression they are subjected to under the Maduro regime.

While she said she was hopeful the world was beginning to see the injustices in Venezuela, her father, Carlos Paez, was more pessimistic. He is the governor of Miranda State and lost a hard-fought presidential election to Hugo Chavez in 2012. The move was later reversed amid widespread global condemnation, but with the unpopular Maduro under increasing pressure to call elections, the constant arrests at marches and threats against party leaders may be his best way to stunt the opposition's momentum, analysts said.

In 2015 another prominent opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, was sentenced to almost 14 years in prison on charges of inciting violence during anti-government protests in 2014.

This week's protests claimed their first victim Thursday night. Nineteen-year-old law student Jairo Ortiz was shot dead by a police officer near his home in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Caracas. But the ombudsman's office said this was not possible. The court issued a ruling March 29 that outraged the government's political opposition. That decision was walked back amid fierce domestic and worldwide criticism, but opposition leaders say it revealed the government's authoritarian nature.

The elections council in recent months has required opposition parties to "revalidate" themselves through petition drives in which they must collect a minimum number of signatures or be dissolved.

None of the other opposition leaders have the profile or influence of Capriles or Lopez, and all could be subject to disqualification.

As the most dominant figure in the opposition over the past decade, Capriles has been at the forefront of the protests, the most combative since a wave of anti-government unrest in 2014 in which dozens of people were killed, many at the hands of security forces.

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