FoxNews.com
1/29/2010
Fierce and growing protests over media freedom have left at least two students dead in Venezuela, and graphic images depicting violent tactics employed by the police there have started to flood the Internet. Here are some of those images, which have been widely circulated in the week since demonstrations began.
Iron Claw: This image, widely circulated online, adorned the front page of El Nacional, a leading Venezuelan newspaper. The original caption reads, in translation, “National Guardsmen suppressing the students in Maracaibo and other state capitals showed a new yet primitive weapon: a thick chain with hooks capable of tearing and doing serious damage to those attacked.”
A car reportedly belonging to a member of a paramilitary pro-Chavez group burns during the second day of protests in Venezuela. Protests have mounted in the wake of an attempt by President Chavez to silence a dissenting cable station, RCTV. Chavez set off similar demonstrations when he targeted the station in 2007, revoking its broadcast license and forcing the station onto cable.
This image circulated online purportedly shows a Venezuelan protester whose back is riddled with injuries from rubber bullets. Students have clashed with police and National Guard forces in Venezuela this week after President Hugo Chavez ordered opposition television stations off the air.
Anti-riot police arrest a student protester at a demonstration in Lecheria, Venezuela. Students have met stiff resistance — as well as tear gas, rubber bullets and waiting jail cells — in their clashes with the country’s police and National Guard. Though this image was taken by an AP photographer, the images that follow were captured by protesters and posted online to Twitter accounts.
The entire photo essay is at FoxNews.com and we warn you that some of the images are disturbingly graphic.
