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Thousands of protesters decrying President Nicolas Maduro and demanding new elections have faced off with security forces in the capital Caracas.
Police launched tear gas and stood shoulder-to-shoulder, blocking roadways, while demonstrators covered their faces and threw rocks as they tried to make their way downtown waving Venezuelan flags and carrying anti-Maduro signs.
"We need to get out on the street and fight, to tell these people we don't want them," said Maria Guedez, a 67-year-old homemaker carrying a sign that read "No more dictatorship".
The protests initially erupted on April 1 after the Supreme Court stripped congress of its last vestiges of power, a decision it later reversed.
Demonstrators and opposition leaders have been angered by what they see as a government that no longer respects democratic institutions and is sliding toward authoritarianism.
Authorities squashed an opposition campaign to hold a recall referendum on Mr Maduro last year and a date has yet to be set for gubernatorial elections that were supposed to take place in 2016.
Mr Maduro has accused the opposition of stirring up unrest and conspiring with international actors to destabilise the country.
He was in Cuba on Tuesday for a gathering of the Bolivarian Alliance, a leftist coalition of 11 Latin-American nations.
Earlier, the President called on the opposition to return to efforts at dialogue and said he was eager for regional elections to take place, but opposition leaders renewed calls to take to the streets, saying Mr Maduro's words had no credibility until a full election timeline was formally established.
"That's the only way there will be peace in Venezuela," president of the National Assembly Julio Borges said.
Socialist party leader Diosdado Cabello said opposition members who "use violence and terrorism to impose [themselves] on the majority who want peace" should face the consequences of the law.
"Enough with impunity," he wrote on Twitter.
The protest in Caracas took place at the start of Easter Week, when many Venezuelans typically spend quiet time at home with family or go on vacation, but members of the opposition urged people to take to the streets.
Authorities shut down several metro stations, citing security reasons, but thousands nonetheless walked to the march.
In some previous demonstrations, government groups have roughed up opposition leaders and fired rubber bullets and a previously unseen reddish gas at crowds.
One day a small group of young protesters unsuccessfully tried to set fire to a Supreme Court office, and another group snatched a camera from journalists working for pro-government state broadcaster VTV.
A dozen people were injured in the most recent batch of protests, and opposition leaders shared a video they said showed an infant being whisked away after being overcome by tear gas.
Overall, the unrest has left one person dead and more than 100 detained. Eighteen people were detained on Tuesday and Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said officers would continue to be deployed around the country.
"The Bolivarian government stands by its commitment to guarantee the tranquillity and social wellbeing of our people," he said.
Popular singer Miguel Ignacio Mendoza, known as Nacho, was among those affected by tear gas in Caracas.
"The repression is not an invention of the media. I'm here to prove it," he said through irritated eyes.
AP
Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, world-politics, elections, police, venezuela