Three people were killed in Venezuela on Monday in renewed violence, raising the death toll in three weeks of massive demonstrations against leftwing President Nicolas Maduro to 24, officials said.
Several others were seriously injured and “between life and death”, said public defender, Tarek William Saab, AFP reported.
The latest casualties come on a day anti-Maduro demonstrators blocked major roads in the South American nation.
Two government trucks in eastern Caracas were set alight on a freeway by masked protesters who poured oil on the road. Police nearby did not immediately intervene.
Elsewhere in the capital, riot police fired tear gas at another group of protesters who threw stones at them. However, the majority of demonstrators, who numbered in the thousands, rallied peacefully.
The return to violence in the streets of Venezuela after a weekend lull was certain to further stoke international concern over the country, whose economy is imploding despite vast oil reserves.
Latin American countries and the United States have voiced concerns at the unrest.
The population is suffering shortages of food, medicine and basic supplies. Riots and looting have occurred in several places.
The conservative-led opposition says government incompetence is to blame and calls the elected president a dictator. It wants early elections.
But Maduro, who has the backing of the armed forces, says Venezuela is the victim of a US-led capitalist plot.
He has stepped up a nationalization drive started by his late Socialist predecessor Hugo Chavez that has swept up plants and assets of foreign companies, including American ones.
Authorities have also curbed the power of the National Assembly, which is dominated by opposition lawmakers.
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