Venezuela hit by deadly protests over economic crisis

SHOTLIST: CARACAS, VENEZUELA, FEB. 12, 2014, SOURCE: AFP Images shot in 720p IMAGES: -VAR of opposition protesters and the Venezuelan gendarme CARACAS, FEB 12, 2014, SOURCE : VTV - NO RESALE FOR NON-EDITORIAL PURPOSES SOUNDBITE 1 Nicolas Maduro, President of Venezuela (Spanish, 18 sec): "It is unfortunate and painful to have to say that because of the call of this fascist (Leopoldo Lopez), two young Venezuelans died today and another group was badly hurt, some really seriously." SOUNDBITE 2 Nicolas Maduro, President of Venezuela (Spanish, 13 sec): "I have given clear instructions to our security forces to secure all the major cities of the country, and whoever will try to be violent, without the permission to mobilise people, will be detained. It does not matter who he is or what his name is." SOUNDBITE 3 Nicolas Maduro, President of Venezuela (Spanish, 9 sec): "In Venezuela, we are facing a rebirth of a neo-Nazi movement and we are going to defeat it. There won't be a coup in Venezuela, no, there won't be." /// --------------------------------- AFP TEXT STORY: Two dead, 23 hurt in Venezuela protests / Caracas (Venezuela) - 13 February 2014 07:22 - AFP (Valeria PACHECO) 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...