Venezuela: Five priests stop tanks from advancing on crowd

Source: Fides/Twitter

Five young Catholic priests walked in front of tanks and managed to negotiate and stop them from advancing on a crowd gathered near a church on Friday, 28 July. The incident was documented in a number of photographs on the Venezuelan Bishops' Conference Twitter account.

The controntation took place around 3.30pm in the city of Ejido, in the state of Mérida. A large crowd had gathered for the funeral of Rafael Vergara, a young man who had been killed in one of the many demonstrations taking place around the country. As people walked to the church a number of tanks of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) began moving towards them.

The priests stopped the funeral, walked towards the talks and asked them to go away.

Many people have died in violent clashes between demonstrators and security forces in Venezuela recently. Another young man was shot and killed on Saturday during a demonstration in San Cristobal, Tachira state. At least 113 deaths have been recorded in nearly four months of protests in the country.