Protests in Caracas, US expels Venezuelan diplomats

Student protesters marched toward the Cuban embassy Tuesday in yet another day of anti-government demonstrations in Caracas as the United States announced the tit-for-tat expulsions of three Venezuelan diplomats.

The US action, which answered Venezuela's expulsions of three American diplomats last week, came a day after President Nicolas Maduro said his government would name a new US ambassador to Washington.

A State Department official said the Venezuelans would have 48 hours to leave the United States.

Caracas appeared to be slowly returning to normal after a night of sporadic clashes, although in some middle class neighborhoods streets were still partially blocked by barriers of rubble and garbage.

Tuesday morning, small groups of youths made their way toward the Cuban embassy, another potential flashpoint and a target of opposition ire.

"Venezuelans who don't protest, don't get out of this. Join us," read a banner set amid a small group of students.

Maduro is under pressure to defuse three weeks of student-led protests that have left 14 people dead.

Maduro has called for "a national peace conference" to be held Wednesday "with all social, political, union and religious groups."

The leftist leader also said he would ask the National Assembly to form a Truth Commission to look into the protests, which he claims are an attempt to "justify foreign intervention in Venezuela."

Maduro, who sees the protests as a coup d'etat in the making, last week kicked out three US diplomats who he said had met with student protest leaders.

But he said his government would name a new ambassador to the United States on Tuesday.

- Lashing out at the US -

Maduro said he was naming a new ambassador because "Americans think we are killing each other" and he wants to improve dialogue with the US.

The two countries have not exchanged ambassadors since 2010, reflecting the bad blood that has prevailed between the two trade partners since the late Hugo Chavez, Maduro's predecessor, came to power in 1999.

Even as he seemed to extend an olive branch, Maduro lashed out at comments by White House spokesman Jay Carney, who on Monday urged him to concentrate on dialogue with the opposition and free detained demonstrators immediately.

"Are you the Venezuelan Supreme Court? Does the United States wield judicial power in Venezuela to decide who is guilty and who should go free?" Maduro exclaimed.

He spoke on a day that saw some of the worst protests against his government since the protests began in the western state of Tachira February 4.

Protesters erected barricades in major cities across the country, setting tires and other debris on fire and clashing with police and national guard troops.

Police firing tear gas dispersed some 50 demonstrators in Caracas late Monday. They had been blocking streets with barricades in the relatively upscale district of Chacao.

In San Cristobal, near the Colombian border, where some of the country's recent protests first erupted, riot police used tear gas to break up a demonstration.

In the latest reported death, a student who was on a rooftop terrace fell backwards to his death on the street as police were breaking up the crowd.

With 45 people still under arrest after marches largely inspired by the country's dire shortages of basic goods and longstanding problems with inflation, the potential for escalation remained visible.

In a rare public split within Maduro's ranks, a ruling party governor called for the release of all jailed protesters.

Jose Gregorio Vielma Mora, the governor of the western state of Tachira where the student-led protests began, also criticized the government's use of the military, calling the response "a grave error" and "unacceptable excess."