Venezuela Protests 2014: Engineering Student Shot To Death In Carabobo

Venezuela’s El Carabobeño reported that Jesús Enrique Acosta, a 23-year-old engineering student at the Universidad de Carabobo, died on Wednesday after being shot in the head during opposition protests in the city of Valencia, in north-central Carabobo state. Luis Acosta, a cousin of the victim, told Notitarde that he and his cousin had been talking when armed colectivo members ambushed the crowd. El Periodiquito writes that six others were wounded by the gunfire, four of whom had checked into a hospital.

Ultimas Noticias writes that Enrique Acosta had been rushed to a hospital after sustaining the injury but was pronounced dead upon arrival. Four have been identified as among the wounded: Guillermo Sánchez, 42; Eduardo Rafael Villegas, 30; Eilym Fuentes Pacheco, 34; and 19-year-old Adrián Valiente. Five people – three of them students – have now died in the state of Carabobo since opposition protests began there in the beginning of February. The news comes two days after a 23-year-old student opposition leader and a 47-year-old government sympathizer were shot to death in the cities of Mérida and San Cristóbal. Thus far, 23 people have died across the country in connection with the protests in the last month and a half.

The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that three people were wounded after unidentified gunmen attacked a barricade in the central Venezuelan city of Barquisimeto. Two suffered bullet wounds; a third was injured by rubber bullets. Francisco Leone, lector of the Universidad Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado, which is located in the city, said that members of the National Guard were in the area at the time of the attacks but did not intervene.