Venezuelan Protests Mark Start of Six-Day Holiday

Several thousand anti-government demonstrators marched in Caracas today after President Nicolas Maduro tried to defuse two weeks of protests by granting Venezuelans an unexpected six-day holiday.

In the eastern Caracas neighborhood Chacao, an opposition stronghold, demonstrators held banners urging Venezuelans to ignore the holidays and take to streets to protest against crime, inflation and shortages of goods. As they attempted to block the city’s main east-west highway, national guards fired tear gas and used water cannons to break up the march.