CARACAS, Venezuela _ Hundreds of demonstrators clashed with Venezuelan security forces Tuesday as they marched in support of lawmakers locked in a bitter dispute with the administration of President Nicolas Maduro and the Supreme Court.
The opposition-controlled National Assembly had called for the march ahead of a vote by lawmakers to remove members of the country's top court, five days after judges attempted to seize the power of Congress. The session was called off before the first vote was cast as the demonstrations turned violent.
National guardsmen blocked the march as it attempted to cross Caracas' main avenue, using teargas, pepper spray and water cannons to disperse the crowds. Opposition leaders reported a number of injuries and arrests of supporters caught in the fray with police and a rival protest by government sympathizers.
The Supreme Court rolled back part of last week's controversial ruling that sought to neuter the National Assembly after the opposition and foreign leader's qualified it as an attempted "self-coup" by Venezuela's embattled president. The opposition has since promised to purge institutions of government loyalists as they seek to put an end to nearly two decades of socialist rule.
Members of Maduro's party have cast the opposition's efforts as little more than political theater.
"Today the National Assembly tried to mount a new show," Diosdado Cabello, a congressmen and the ruling socialist party's number two, said to a crowd of government supporters in downtown Caracas. "The only coup here is against President Nicolas Maduro."
