Deaths, dozens hurt amid protests in Venezuela

SHOTLIST: CARACAS, VENEZUELA, FEB. 12, 2014, SOURCE: AFP Images shot in 720p VAR images showing: -opposition protesters and the Venezuelan gendarme /// -------------------------------------- Venezuela-politics-economy-death,2ndlead Two dead, 23 hurt in Venezuela protests by Valeria PACHECO CARACAS, Feb 12, 2014 (AFP) - Two people died and 23 were injured as rival protests linked to Venezuela's deepening economic crisis exploded into violence on Wednesday, a prosecutor said. A pro-government demonstrator and a student were killed as demonstrations both for and against Venezuela's government escalated. "We have two dead, unfortunately a member of the (pro-government) group Juan Montoya, shot dead, and student Bassil DaCosta, also shot dead," as well as 23 injured, said Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz. Unidentified assailants earlier fired into a rally outside the attorney general's office in Caracas -- one of several held by both supporters and foes of the government over President Nicolas Maduro's handling of Venezuela's ailing economy. The OPEC member nation -- with an institutionally socialist government dependent on oil revenues in a state-led system -- sits atop the world's largest proven reserves of crude. Yet its economy has been battered by inflation of more than 50 percent a year. It has had economic problems go from bad to worse amid shortages of hard currency while dwindling supplies of consumer goods have frustrated some government supporters. The government blames what it calls "bourgeois" local business interests for trying to profit from the its largely low- and middle-income political base. It has engaged in privatizations and unpopular currency controls. In a speech broadcast on state television, National Assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello denounced "the killing of a fighting member of the Bolivarian Revolution in the Plaza La Candelaria" some 200 meters (650 feet) from where the opposition supporters were rallying. "This is a provocation from the right," Cabello charged, calling for "calm and sanity." - Thousands in Caracas - ------------------------ Thousands of students, accompanied by several...