Chilean is first foreign fatality in Venezuela unrest

By Andrew Cawthorne and Diego Ore CARACAS (Reuters) – A Chilean woman was shot dead while clearing a barricade put up by anti-government protesters, the first foreign fatality during a month of civil unrest in Venezuela, authorities said on Monday. 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,” Alexis Ramirez, the governor of Merida state, told reporters, blaming the killing of Rubilar on unidentified 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 solutions to problems of rampant crime and economic shortages.