How Many Protesters Have Died In Venezuela? Government Says Death Toll At 13

EFE reports that the Venezuelan attorney general, Luisa Ortega, said on Monday that the death toll in protests against the government of Nicolás Maduro had reached 13 after two more opposition members died on Monday during demonstrations in the cities of Pueblo Nuevo and Cagua. Some 137 others have been injured, said Ortega, who also confirmed Maduro’s announcement on Friday that three Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin) agents had been detained in connection with the shooting deaths of three protestors on Feb. 12.

But according to El Espectador, Ortega also appeared to point the finger at protestors in calling the death of Elvis Rafael de la Rosa, who was decapitated by a wire cord strung up across a street while riding his motorcycle, a “terrorist act.” She added that 12 protestors had been found with firearms and “many others” with smaller arms and explosive devices like Molotov coctails, saying, “If you bring a firearm to a demonstration, you don’t have pacific intentions.”

El Nacional wrote on Monday that the two demonstrators who died on Monday were 34-year-old Jimmy Vargas, who fell from a building mezzanine in Pueblo Nuevo after tear gas and buckshot fired by members of the National Guard made him lose consciousness. The other, Jhonny Carballo, was shot to death in Cagua, Aragua state, by armed motorcyclists who overtook peaceful protestors on Monday morning.

The New York Times noted on Sunday that in a speech on Sunday, Maduro disputed the opposition’s claim that Danny Vargas, a young man stabbed to death during a protest in the city of San Cristóbal -- where protests first began on Feb. 2 -- was a fellow protestor. Maduro said Vargas had been stabbed by a man who had earlier been “humiliated” by protestors and killed Vargas after mistaking him for a demonstrator. San Cristóbal Mayor Daniel Ceballos, who has registered his opposition to the presence of federal police and paratroopers ordered to the state by Maduro’s government -- even calling for city residents to convene in protest -- said Maduro was seeking “to justify his repression, to justify his militarization” by laying the death at the feet of the protestors, and said Vargas had died after trying to steal a motorcycle.