Venezuela unrest death toll hits 31: prosecutors

A young man dies from wounds suffered in demonstration in Barquisimeto

CARACAS: The death from just over a month of political unrest in Venezuela has hit 31 after two more people died in the latest disturbances, the state prosecution service said on Wednesday.

A source in the service told AFP a motorcyclist was killed by a truck as it dodged a barricade mounted by protesters in Caracas and a young man died from wounds suffered in a demonstration in the western city of Barquisimeto.

Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro announced on Monday the creation of a new popular assembly with the ability to re-write the constitution, which foes decried as a power-grab to stifle weeks of anti-government unrest.

“I don’t want a civil war,” Maduro told a May Day rally of supporters in downtown Caracas while elsewhere across the city security forces fired tear gas at youths hurling stones and petrol bombs after opposition marches were blocked.

Maduro, 54, has triggered an article of the constitution that creates a super-body known as a “constituent assembly.” It can dissolve public powers and call general elections, echoing a previous assembly created by his predecessor Hugo Chavez in 1999 soon after he won office in the South American OPEC nation.