A protester and a journalist give Euronews their accounts of violence committed by security forces.
ADVERTISEMENTEuronews has heard evidence of violence carried out by the security forces in Venezuela against journalists and protesters.
One press worker said that during last weekend’s protests after the Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz was ousted, reporters were ambushed by the Bolivarian National Guard despite having identified themselves as reporters.
The cameraman for the American network Telemundo says he was hit and injured by rubber bullets.
“The police don’t like me to film them when one officer is stealing the wallet and earrings of an old woman being suffocated by tear gas thrown by them,” he said.
The clampdown has been aided by gangs on motorbikes who have been seen roaming the streets looking for protesters.
One young man who supports the resistance against President Maduro’s government claims he was shot in the face during recent clashes in Caracas.
“I tried to dodge some obstacles and take cover from the policemen but then one of them – the one sitting in the back of the motorbike – saw me, pointed his gun at me and shot me five times with birdshot,” the 25-year-old university student – who didn’t want to be identified – told us.
The UN’s human rights office has denounced what it calls “widespread and systematic use of excessive force” against demonstrators.
According to the NGO Espacio Público, more than 250 journalists have been attacked. They Euronews correspondent Eduardo Salazar Uribe, who was targeted while covering events in April.
The Venezuelan Public Ministry has admitted more than 120 violent deaths during anti-Maduro protests.