A 16-year-old boy was blinded in both eyes after he was shot in the face by police as he was taking part in a demonstration over fuel shortages.

Rufo Valendria was protesting in the town of Tariba, in the northwest of Venezuela, on Monday when a policeman is said to have fired pellets at the youth.

5 Police officers are thought to have shot Rufo Valendria in the face with pellets Credit: PD América

The lad was rushed to hospital where an ophthalmologist confirmed the pellets had destroyed his eyesight, according to Periodista.

Dr Luiz Ramires said: “The patient will be operated on in the next few hours to perform a surgical evisceration of both eyeballs.”

Footage shows a crowd of demonstrators protesting in the road before cracks of what seem to be gunfire are heard and people flee the scene.

Tarek William Saab, the attorney general for President Nicolas Maduro, 56, said the incident was “regrettable” and confirmed two officials Javier Useche Blanco and Henry Ramirez Hernández had been detained by Táchira Police.

'REGRETTABLE'

Saab added the men would also be held responsible for injuries to Rufo's 14-year-old brother, as another five people were wounded in the clash.

National Assembly President Juan Guaido condemned the violence.

Guaido has also claimed he is the President of the country, triggering a presidential crisis.

He said: “We will not get used to it, we will not stop calling them murderers... nor will we get used to the sadistic act against the eyes of Rufo Chacón who also did not get used to living without gas in a country that had plenty.”

DECLINE AND FALL - THE COLLAPSE OF VENEZUELA

The oil-rich South American country is currently on the brink of collapse due to hyperinflation.

Revolutionary socialist Hugo Chavez swept to power in 1998, promising to share out the nation’s wealth.

Slum dwellers were housed in new tower block apartments, deliberately sited in well-to-do areas, and Chavez gave away £640billion in welfare handouts, increasing the national debt five-fold.

Chavez used the oil revenues of the 2000s to nationalise key industries and to implement social programmes known as the Bolivarian missions.

At the start of the 21 st century Venezuela was the world’s fifth largest exporter of crude oil, with it accounting for 85 per cent of the country’s exports and therefore dominating the economy.

This resulted in temporary improvements to quality of life, literacy rates, poverty rates, and income equality – mainly from 2003 and 2007.

5

However, this was only temporary and the gains started to reverse in 2012 after government policies failed to address structural inequalities in other areas such as quality of housing, neighbourhoods, education and employment.

The Venezuelan government overspent on social programmes and it led to a rise in inflation.

This coupled with the government’s unfriendliness to privatisation led to a lack of foreign investment.

President Nicolas Maduro took over after Chavez died in 2013, and analysts claim that Venezuela’s economic problems would still have been exacerbated if Chavez was still the leader.

But the collapse of oil prices has now triggered a total economic meltdown.

Due to huge state subsidies, a full tank of petrol is around 5p — 20 times less than a bottle of water — but production is now so inefficient that the country is importing oil.

Hyperinflation has become one of the biggest problems for Venezuelans in their day-to-day lives.

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The costs of goods continue to increase as the value of their currency continues to fall.

A worker on the £25-a-month minimum wage must now work for two weeks to afford a bag of rice.

And now, Venezuela is in the grip of a hyperinflation economic catastrophe after 19 years of successive socialist governments failed to control the cost of basic goods, which are now doubling in price on average every 26 days.

5 A doctor confirmed the pellets had destroyed the lad's eyesight Credit: Twitter

5 Rufo Valendria had been taking part in demonstrations in Tariba Credit: PD América

5 President Nicolas Maduro has overseen the economic collapse of his country Credit: AP:Associated Press