CARACAS: Venezuelan police fired tear gas and protesters hurled petrol bombs as thousands rallied on Wednesday in anger at President Nicolas Maduro’s plan to rewrite the constitution. They were the latest clashes in more than a month of unrest sparked by Venezuela’s political and economic crisis.

Clouds of grey smoke from tear gas canisters filled the air as police with riot shields and trucks advanced along a major avenue in the east of the capital. Protesters at the head of the crowd hurled stones and Molotov cocktails and officers fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon to push them back.

Protesters were inflamed above all by President Nicolas Maduro’s latest maneuver against opposition efforts to remove him from power. The socialist president launched procedures with the electoral council to convene a “constituent assembly” to rewrite the constitution. His centre-right opponents said that was a way of dodging elections in order to cling to power.

They blame Maduro for an economic crisis that has led to shortages of food, medicine and basic goods in the oil-rich South American nation. Maduro says the crisis is the result of a US-backed capitalist conspiracy.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2017