A Chilean woman was shot dead while clearing a barricade built by anti-government protesters, becoming the first foreign national to be killed in more than a month of demonstrations and civil unrest in Venezuela, authorities said Monday.

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The deaths of Gisela Rubilar, 47, who was studying in the western Venezuelan city of Merida, and of a protester shot in the border state of Tachira brought to at least 22 the number of fatalities in five weeks of unrest.

“She was ambushed by extreme right-wing groups ... She was vilely murdered with a shot in the eye,” the governor of Merida state, Alexis Ramirez, told reporters, blaming Rubilar's death on demonstrators in the Andean city.

Students and militant opponents of President Nicolas Maduro have been maintaining street barricades in various cities since last month, demanding the president’s resignation and an end to rampant crime and widespread shortages.

The barriers have become frequent flashpoints for violence between protesters and police and government supporters.

Authorities in Merida said Rubilar was a mother of four and a member of the ruling Socialist Party. A classmate told Reuters she was studying higher education, had lived in Merida for six years and worked as an artisan.

Maduro said on state television that investigations were making progress and that her killers had been identified.

“We’re on their trail,” he said. “Rest assured, Chile and Latin America, we are going to capture the assassins of this compatriot and they will pay for this horrendous crime.”

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said his government has asked Venezuela to provide them with all the information about the circumstances and cause of Rubilar’s death.

People from both sides of the political divide, as well as members of the security forces, have been among the victims of the country’s worst unrest in a decade.

Daniel Ceballos, mayor of San Cristobal in Tachira state, said on Twitter that a student, Daniel Tinoco, was shot dead there late on Monday in clashes between protesters and government supporters. San Cristobal has been hardest hit by the turmoil.

Maduro set to remain

Although street protests helped briefly topple Venezuela’s late socialist leader Hugo Chavez in a botched 2002 coup, there seems little chance the current unrest could lead to a Ukraine-style overthrow of Maduro, his chosen successor.

The military, which played a crucial role in 2002, appears to be firmly behind Maduro. Opposition leaders are also split between the militants who back the street protests and moderates who believe that the demonstrations risk more violence and lack widespread support.

The ongoing, daily protests are a mix of peaceful demonstrations and violent exchanges between security forces and hooded protesters hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails.

Pro- and anti-government medical personnel held rival rallies in the capital on Monday.

Earlier in the day, the army said it raided a parking garage under Caracas’ Altamira Square – a stronghold of opposition protests – and found a stockpile of food, water, medicine, helmets and other equipment stored for the demonstrators.

Eleven people were arrested, the authorities said.

Maduro told supporters that the protesters had been defeated. “We have faced a coup and neutralised it,” he said.

But students are vowing to stay on the street indefinitely in what could be a protracted period of instability for Venezuela’s 29 million people.

More than 1,300 have been arrested in the unrest, with 92 still behind bars, according to the government. More than 300 people have been injured during the weeks of protest.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)

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