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Fernando Llano / AP
An opposition student protester carries a fellow protester after police launched tear gas during their march toward the electoral commission in downtown Caracas on Thursday.
CARACAS - Police fired tear gas in downtown Caracas on Thursday as anti-government student protesters clashed with supporters of late President Hugo Chavez in an increasingly volatile atmosphere ahead of next month's election.
Several hundred students were marching to the election board's headquarters to demand a clean vote when they were blocked by government supporters who hurled stones, bottles and eggs at them, a Reuters witness said.
Some of the students threw stones back, other witnesses said.
"We were holding a peaceful march. ... All we want is democracy," said law student Eduardo Vargas, 19, whose eye was injured in the incident. "We're all Venezuelans. We just want a fair vote."
Police fired tear gas toward the 150 or so government supporters and formed a cordon between the two sides.
It was the first outbreak of violence since an election was called on April 14 for the South American OPEC nation following Chavez's death from cancer two weeks ago.
Both candidates, acting President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Henrique Capriles, have been trading personal accusations as they rally supporters for the vote.
One onlooker, Gustavo Malave, a 78-year-old who works for one of the socialist "community councils" set up during Chavez's 14-year rule, blamed the students for starting the trouble.
"The clash began because the opposition started throwing stones," he said. "I support Chavez and Maduro. Chavez set this course, and it's going to continue for 40 or 50 years."
David Fernandez / EPA
Supporters of Hugo Chavez march in Caracas on Thursday.
Before the clash, the students had been marching to the election headquarters singing the national anthem and carrying signs including "Free and fair elections" and "Nicolas is a liar."
"The students are saying to the world and to the country that we are in the street. We want transparent and free elections," said one student leader, Victor Fernandez.
Maduro at an evening campaign rally called the students "a small group of recalcitrant right-wing people."
"None of us can ... be provoked by those tiny groups that make a living off hatred," he said.
He said the group had links to two U.S. diplomats expelled on the day of Chavez's death on charges they were attempting to conspire with the Venezuelan military.
"I want you to know that those two men directly gave orders and instructions and money to this same group," he said.
That charge follows a flurry of recent accusations against U.S. authorities including a charge that the State Department is seeking to kill Capriles to spark a coup.
Washington denies the accusation.
With sympathy over Chavez's death galvanizing government supporters, Maduro, 50, a longtime socialist stalwart, is favorite to win next month's vote.
Two polls published this week put the former bus driver ahead of Capriles by more than 14 percentage points.
Capriles, a 40-year-old state governor, accuses Maduro of being a nonentity who is exploiting the emotion around Chavez's death. He wants voters to focus on daily problems confronting Venezuelans ranging from potholes to high crime rates and corruption.
Capriles, a centrist politician who says Brazil's free-market economics with strong welfare policies is his model for Venezuela, lost to Chavez last year by 11 percentage points.
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
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Good luck, Capriles
Venezuela is ready for true democracy. But don't forget the poor, so at least Hugo Chavez has done something good, regardless of his many controversial policies.
The US should not try to meddle..giving Venezuela room ... otherwise more people there will be pro-Chavez than pro-American. If America continues to meddle, Chavez will stay relevant even after his death.
The Chavistas war cry... "GIVE US WELFARE!!!"
So it begins......
Does anybody still need proof that Chavez and his followers are closer to Stalin and Hitler than normal states?.And his friendships with Iran,N.Korea and Libya among others are just further evidence of the horror! Very bad news for the whole world!
Egads! Next thing you know all those countries will be invading North American and pounding the rural inhabitants and small towns with remote controlled airplanes! AHHHH!!! G## D### I#! Thats our F###ing Job!
Too many voters at the public trough to see real change. Chavismo was pretty clever that way, but eventually they will run out of other people's money. Might be years though, given their oil. I agree we should let them find their way.
Chavez did very well by the majority his people and was a Strong leader who brought first economic stability and second a sense of national pride that had been missing for decades..Let us not forget however that he was an extremely wealthy individual in his own right and one of the very few who had no need to be a corrupt politician pilfering from government funds to deal himself an extra slice off the top...That said, History of the politics of South America suggest that the system Chavez set up, while viable under him will become totally corrupted in a very short period of time...We can Hope for the best but if history teaches us anything it is that the Odds of a Chavez System of Government under anyone else is likely to be a pitiful shadow of what it was...Socialism can work but only under certain conditions..In this case, an Abundance of OIL....When that resource is no longer the fuel that feeds Socialism in Venezuela, the country will Fold like a rookie poker player with a pair of 3's
reno 911 the rich victims are living in Miami and getting along very well with the right-wing Cubans. Now they are united in common hatred.
Venezuela's and Cuba's social experiments will eventually fail and a more balanced (centrist) society will emerge in the future.
His "economic stability" was bought with the state oil company, which is now staffed by incompetent party loyalists. Its safety record and output have both been in constant decline since. Hugo's "national pride" was developed by making an enemy out of the United States, a country that frankly could barely give less of a **** about Venezuela. Everything and anything that Hugo could plausibly blame on America, he did. If your best message of unity is one of resistance and hatred toward an entity that isn't really interested in bothering you, then there might be a reason you're lacking "national pride".
Maduro seems intent on following Hugo's example, although he isn't bothering to keep it plausible, blaming Hugo's cancer on the United States and accusing us of paying off people to protest. Come on man, do you really think the CIA doesn't have better things to do?
Wanting free and fair elections is a right-wing value now?
Damn. I wake up this morning and all of a sudden I'm a political extremist.
Maduro will probably win, but unless he proves to be a shockingly adept statesmen, the government will tear itself apart under the weight of internal feuds, corruption, and problems that they like to blame on the United States (and consequently never seem to go away). So the people of Venezuela can look forward to another long term of economic disaster and never-ending crime.
SF accountant
If you are referring to the "student opposition" in Venezuela or Caprilles being "right wing" and wanting fair elections, you would be incorrect on the first part. Caprilles is very much a liberal but he recognizes that Venezuelans can not dig themselves out of the hole they are in and will need expert help from outside the country. Caprilles knows if he tries to sell the people on American help he will lose the would be chavista vote. He will seek out countries other than USA for help in his campaign rhetoric to save face with the chavistas.
From here in the USA Caprilles is as liberal as anyone comes but in Venezuela he is eyed as a moderate at best.
As long as you give the Chavistas a little free money and a shack to live in and keep them uneducated they will vote for whoever has the red shirt on. Maduro looks like a Saddam Hidsaain double ( kinda creepy. I lived in Venezuela for 3 years. It is a beautiful country plagued with corruption and trash in the streets, never no food on the shelves and the power being shut off every 3 days. Maduro has had Chavez in his shadows for a long time and he can imitate him very well. He cannot come up with a miracle to save his country because he too is part of the corruption. His wife is in charge if the voting process. Wow. I don't Capriles has a big enough broom to clean up this horrible mess. God bless Venezuela.
40 or 50 years? Really? Venezuelans are some of the laziest people on the planet. They expect their government to support them at every turn. Although, they don't want much, subsidized gasoline at $0.04 per gallon with free food and rent. The average Venezuelan feels that the oil in Venezuela is theirs and they should be paid for it. I lived in Venezuela for 12 years and I have worked all over Latin America for most of my adult life and I can say this with confidence, Venezuela has failed and will not rise again without outside help. Chavez entered office 14 years ago without a dime to his name and died 2 weeks ago a billionaire. Does that sound right to you? It sounds right to the Chavista's in Venezuela because they know this fact and still they vote for the next thief of the nation, Maduro. Folk's, this is empty stomach politics at it's best and it's used all over the world where lazy people are bribed with free food staples and no responsibility for their own lives. The same type of voting scenario just happened in the USA when the "have nots" voted their way into the treasury, albeit it was much more civilized. The same thing happened in Rome and it killed Rome so fast we're not sure what Romans really looked like. I could go on and on about the corruption and the lack of respect these latinos show their brothers and sisters, enough to fill a book, but I won't.
The uneducated and poor of Venezuela will continue to be taken advantage of, as they don't know any better. The fact is that if this buffoon who is the interim President, actually becomes President, forget the country. It will be the basket case of South America.
I feel very sorry for the Venezuelans that only want an open and democratically elected government, as they won't get one until the current thug is thrown out of office........
Without Hugo Chavez there to order the police to stop all opposition protests (and to pay them extra to keep it quiet), Venezuela may actually have to break down and have an hones, fair election. It seems that the 'loyalists' are the ones who started the violence, and they may discover that Hugo isn't there to protect them any longer. Of course, Hugo's family still has control of all his illegally gotten cash and the government only has what was left over to provide some sort of order in parliament.