Venezuela’s El Universal reported on Wednesday that at least eight people were shot at a Tuesday demonstration held by opposition activists in the northern city of Valencia, including a former beauty queen. Génesis Carmona, Miss Tourism 2013 for Carabobo state, died on Wednesday of a bullet wound to the head, making her the fifth person to be killed while protesting in the past week. The Valencia demonstration was reportedly interrupted by gunmen on motorcycles who shot at and threw bottles at protestors.
In an investigation based on about 100 photos and three videos taken of the moments leading up to the Feb. 12 shooting death of Bassil Da Costa, a 24-year-old opposition protestor, the newspaper Últimas Noticias concluded that among those who opened fire into a crowd of demonstrators that day were uniformed members of the National Bolivarian Intelligence Service. Two other demonstrators died that day from gunshot wounds; the fourth death came on Tuesday after a worker with Pdvsa – the country’s state oil company – accelerated into a crowd of protestors who were blocking the road.
El Universal writes that 21-year-old Carmona, a professional model and one-time major in Marketing at the Universidad Tecnológica del Centro (Unitec) in Carabobo state, had undergone surgery on Tuesday but remained in critical condition. Francisco Ameliach, the governor of the state, had announced earlier that day that marches which the opposition had planned for the southern part of Valencia would not be permitted for reasons of security and said that the Bolívar Chávez Battle Units – groups aligned with the governing socialist party for the purpose of displaying support – would be waiting on the call of National Assembly Speaker Diosdado Cabello to “give the order” for an “immediate counterattack”.
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