CARACAS — Venezuelans took to the streets of Caracas in dueling demonstrations on Saturday, with one group calling attention to a crackdown on opponents of the government and another showing support for the embattled socialist administration. Activists wearing white gathered Saturday morning to denounce the Feb. 19 arrest of Caracas' mayor and the death Tuesday of a teenager who was shot at a protest. The government arrested Mayor Antonio Ledezma on charges of conspiring in an alleged US-backed coup plot, an accusation the United States has denied as baseless. As evidence against Ledezma, the administration of President Nicolas Maduro pointed to the mayor's signature on an opposition document calling for a “national transition.” On Saturday, opposition leaders asked Caracas residents to come into the streets to sign the document, saying the government can't arrest the whole city. The administration, meanwhile, called on its supporters to march to the presidential palace to commemorate the anniversary of a convulsion of violence in Caracas known as the “Caracazo.” In 1989, police fired indiscriminately on Venezuelans who were demonstrating against austerity measures, killing hundreds. The event is widely seen among government supporters as representing the brutality of the regimes that came before the revolutionary government launched 16 years ago by late President Hugo Chavez. — AP
