Maduro's men clear streets

A prayer card peeps out from the body armour of a national guardsman. Photo / AP

The National Guards rolled in under the cover of darkness, firing tear gas and rubber bullets as they advanced with bulldozers and armoured vehicles towards the makeshift barricades.

After weeks of protests that have rocked his Government, Venezuela's left-wing president Nicolas Maduro had ordered his security forces to regain control of San Cristobal, the birthplace of the unrest.

Their mission was to destroy the hundreds of barricades that have paralysed life in the Andean city, an opposition stronghold of 650,000 in Venezuela's "wild west" near the Colombian border.

The student-led protests that erupted here in early February over violent crime, food shortages and price rises quickly spread across Venezuela and there were fresh clashes in the capital Caracas at the weekend.

Close to the capital, Leopoldo Lopez, a charismatic opposition leader, is languishing in a military prison on charges of arson and instigating violence in connection with the protests that have now claimed at least 39 lives. Armed pro-government groups have also been accused of a string of attacks on opponents.

But in the fight for the future of the country, Maduro is determined to restore his writ over the cradle of the protests. After two days, General Vladimir Padrino, the head of the National Armed Forces Strategic Operational Command, declared yesterday that security forces had "ended the curfew imposed by terrorists".

The students camped out at the main barricades fought back with petrol bombs, slings and rocks that they had prepared for the expected attack.

Flames lit the night sky as running battles lasted several hours, but the showdown with Maduro's forces was inevitably one-sided.

By shortly after dawn, the security forces had reclaimed Avenida Carabobo, the main hillside thoroughfare that runs through San Cristobal past homes and stores.

"This is an occupation by the military and our campaign of resistance is not going to end," insisted Suimey Sanchez, 23, a medical student. "They cannot silence us."