In some of Venezuela's most violent protests in months, anti-government demonstrators tried to accompany lawmakers in a march to the National Assembly for a vote on the Supreme Court. Police blocked their way.
Image: Reuters/M. Bello
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Venezuelan riot police clashed with anti-government demonstrators and opposition lawmakers on Tuesday in some of the largest protests in months against socialist President Nicolas Maduro.
Scarcity, riots and drought: Venezuela is in trouble
Lufthansa has canceled service to Caracas as Venezuela's economic turmoil worsens. The country is one of the world's largest oil producers, but plunging prices have brought inflation to 180 percent in the past year.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/EFE/M. Gutiérrez
Hyperinflation bites into economy
Hyperinflation has made doing business in Venezuela untenable for many domestic and foreign firms. With the currency dropping, the government has made it difficult to convert bolivars into US dollars.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/G. Ismar
Food shortages
Food shortages have become pervasive, spurred on by hyperinflation. Empty store shelves have become all too common across Venezuela.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/J. Barreto
Queuing up to buy food
Food shortages mean that people have to wait in line to buy essential food items at select locations. Here people line up outside a supermarket in the poor neighborhood of Lidice, in Caracas.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/R. Schemidt
Gathering signatures
Opposition leaders launched a petition drive to collect signatures for a recall referendum. They needed 200,000 signatures, or 1 percent of the electorate, but they got 1.8 million voters to sign.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Gutierrez
Green light for petition
Opposition leader Henrique Capriles shows journalists that the National Election Council has given permission for the referendum to go ahead. But President Nicolas Maduro's government is trying to delay the vote.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Gutierrez
Pushing for referendum
Protesters have taken to the streets, demanding that the referendum go forward.
Image: Reuters/M. Bello
Students protest
Students have also taken to the streets to demonstrate. They are protesting both the overall economic stagnation and also the government's efforts to delay the referendum.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/R. Schemidt
Severe drought
A devastating drought has exacerbated Venezuela's problems. What was once a vast reservoir, held back by a hydroelectric dam, is now little more than a series of mud puddles.
Image: Reuters/C.G. Rawlins
Drought wreaks havoc
The country depends on the Guri Dam - one of the world's largest - for a significant portion of its electricity. While the reservoir is turning to desert, citizens endure daily black outs, and government offices open just two days a week to save electricity.
Image: Reuters/C.G. Rawlins
Health care suffers
Oliver Sanchez, 8, holds a sign that reads "I want to heal, peace, health" during a protest against the shortage of medicines in Caracas. Oliver has Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but the medicine he needs is no longer available.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/A. Cubillos
Maduro under fire
Venezuela's economic dip is largely the result of oil prices that have plunged more than 50 percent in the past two years. But a severe drought is crimping electricity supplies, and focusing people's ire on Maduro.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/EFE/M. Gutiérrez
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Police blocked the opposition's march to the National Assembly, where lawmakers planned to hold a session to debate removing Supreme Court justices who ruled last week to seize legislative powers from the opposition-controlled Congress.
At least nine people were injured, including one person who was shot in the leg, as police backed by tanks and anti-riot vehicles fired tear gas and pepper spray on demonstrators, some of whom threw rocks.
Among those who felt the burn of pepper spray was National Assembly head Julio Borges, and former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles.
"This is how they show disrespect for people sworn in as lawmakers," Borges said on Twitter. "Lawmakers assaulted on Libertador Avenue as we headed in to hold a session."
Supreme Court debate postponed
Although the Maduro-allied Supreme Court reversed its decision to seize power from Congress over the weekend after coming under international and domestic pressure, divided opposition forces have been become united and emboldened in their quest to remove the socialist president.
"Our demands are crystal clear," said Capriles, standing next to a barricade erected by activists. "We all have to unite our forces because Maduro has chosen the path of dictatorship."
Several thousand angry anti-government protesters took to the streets.Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/F. Llano
Unable to hold the session at the National Assembly, debate on removing the judges was postponed until Wednesday. Any vote would largely be symbolic because the Supreme Court has reversed most decisions by lawmakers since the opposition took control of Congress in 2015.
Pro-government rally
A rival pro-government march on the National Assembly was also staged, underlying the tense and combustible nature of an ongoing political crisis driven by a collapsing economy and what the opposition says is Maduro's drive to implement a dictatorship.
Opposition activists said armed pro-government gangs on motorcycles fired into the air.
The opposition blames Maduro for economic paralysis that has resulted in shortages of food and other basic goods in the oil-rich country. Repeated opposition attempts to force a recall referendum and election to replace Maduro have been blocked by the courts and the electoral commission.
Maduro and his supporters blame a capitalist conspiracy led by the United States seeking to carry out a coup against his rule.
"It's they who are trying to carry out a coup," socialist party leader Diosdado Cabello told the crowd of mostly government workers. "Everyone who is traitor of the motherland should be treated like an enemy in our territory."
