Protesters marched through Caracas and cities across Venezuela on Saturday as the government's banning of a top opposition leader from office breathed life into a fractured movement and fueled the first sustained anti-government demonstrations since 2014, APA reports quoting Reuters.
Thousands of people, some carrying signs reading "No to dictatorship!" and "Capriles for President" in support of banned leader Henrique Capriles, took part in marches against the unpopular leftist government of President Nicolas Maduro.
Saturday's protests extended a week of unrest sparked by last week's Supreme Court decision in which it assumed the role of the opposition-led congress. The action was quickly overturned, but the global outcry it sparked galvanized the opposition.
Authorities on Saturday employed security measures used in recent protests, such as closing 17 subway stations across Caracas and setting up check points on roads leading to the capital.
Security forces fired tear gas on one major avenue in Caracas while police in the opposition hotbed San Cristobal shot rubber bullets towards protesters, injuring two according to a Reuters witness.
"The government is afraid. If it were not afraid, it would not close the streets. ... It would not disqualify Capriles," said 27-year-old lawyer Gikeissy Diaz, adding that half of her graduating class has left the country and that she is thinking of doing so, too.
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