VENEZUELA RIOTS - Caracas Turns Into A Battle Field as Riot Police Clash With Protesters

Venezuelan riot police fired volleys and tear gas to disperse hundreds of anti-government demonstrators in Caracas after competing mass rallies were held on Saturday across the country. The protesters blocked main arteries by burning barricades and throwing rocks while security officials used tear gas to control them.




Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused President Obama of promoting ongoing protests in the country, and of backing members of the opposition alleged to be behind violence.

In a communique, the Latin American leader demanded that the US explain its motives in "financing, promoting and defending members of the opposition that promote violence against our country."

Maduro went on to denounce declarations made by President Obama regarding the situation in Venezuela, saying that they presented a "gross interference in internal affairs."

Wednesday night saw sporadic clashes between demonstrators in the capital of Caracas, the majority of which are middle class students who are frustrated with the country's sputtering economy and soaring crime rate, and are seeking a regime change.

Maduro, who was elected last year as the heir apparent following the death of long-time President Hugo Chavez, has accused the opposition of fomenting a coup and inciting violence.

Venezuela has given three American diplomats from the US Embassy in Caracas 48 hours to exit the country after President Nicolas Maduro leveled accusations of conspiracy and meeting with students to incite anti-government sentiment.

Following days of opposition protests, three unnamed diplomats were declared persona non grata by Maduro during a televised address on Sunday night. On Monday Venezuela's Minister of Foreign Affairs Elias Jaua announced that the US diplomats in question were vice consuls Breann Marie McCusker and Jeffrey Elsen, and Kristofer Lee Clark, who holds the rank of second secretary at the US consulate.

As evidence, Jaua cited email correspondence from US embassy officials in recent years that supposedly call for funding from Washington to support Venezuelan student groups, AP reported.

He added that the diplomats sought contacts "for the training, the financing and the creation of youth organizations to foment violence."

"It's a group of US functionaries who are in the universities. We've been watching them having meetings in the private universities for two months. They work in visas," Maduro stated Sunday in a nationally televised broadcast.

Last Wednesday, over 10,000 people poured onto the streets of Caracas to peacefully protest their growing worries, such as the country's high murder rate and a record-breaking 56 percent inflation.

At the end of Wednesday's opposition protests, a group of students battled with security forces and pro-government militias, leaving three people dead. Maduro's government blamed the violence on Harvard-educated opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, whom Maduro accuses of leading a US-backed "fascist" plot to oust the socialist government.

On Monday the successor of the late Hugo Chávez, Nicolás Maduro, ordered the expulsion of three U.S. diplomats in retaliation for working with anti-government activists in Venezuela. The expulsion order coincided with a planned rally by the opposition.

The success of the student movement remains in question. "The challenge that the student movement will face is in finding a way to include Venezuela's laboring class, which for the most part still supports the government, and relies on its redistributive policies," notes Zero Hedge. "Their inability to rouse broad support across Venezuela's social and economic classes was in part why previous student uprisings, including significant protests in 2007, failed to generate enough momentum to trigger a significant political shift."

The Maduro government did not provide evidence of State Department complicity in the protests and violence. Past efforts to unseat Maduro's predecessor, however, were orchestrated in part by the National Endowment for Democracy, the AFL-CIO corporate labor union, and the CIA.