CARACAS: A man was wounded by gunfire Monday during the latest protest against the Venezuelan government's new economic policies and authorities later broke up the demonstration, a non-governmental group said.
The man was hurt in Tachira state, where the protest was called against the new anti-smuggling measures of President Nicolas Maduro's government, according to the NGO Foro Penal.
"A man wounded by gunshot in Las Vegas, Tariba, Tachira state," tweeted Foro Penal's director Alfredo Romero.
It was not immediately clear if the victim was taking part in the demonstration, or who shot him. There have been several protests in the area in recent days.
Authorities broke up the demonstration, in which another five people were hurt by firecracker-style small explosions, the NGO said.
San Cristobal, capital of Tachira, was the heart of violent protests earlier this year against sky-high inflation, rampant shortages and spiralling violent crime under Maduro's socialist government. Forty-three people were killed and hundreds injured across the country.
Maduro has announced plans to introduce fingerprint scanners at supermarkets in a bid to stop food smugglers he blames for the crippling shortages.
Price controls in Venezuela keep food and other basic goods up to 10 times cheaper than in neighboring countries, but there have been chronic shortages of every day items, including toilet paper.
Maduro blames the shortages on smugglers who buy cheap products and sell them for large profits across the border, particularly in Colombia.
Under the new system, the scanners would be used to prevent people from making repeat trips to the supermarket and buying abnormally large amounts of food.
Though it has the world's largest oil reserves, Venezuela is mired in an economic crisis marked by a soaring deficit and annual inflation that stood at 60 percent when the government stopped releasing the figure two months ago.
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