Search for assasins ongoing in Venezuela

(Vatican Radio) Venezuelan authorities continue their search of the central city of Valencia, following the shooting deaths of three men including a National Guard Captain.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro says six people have been arrested in Valencia, as well as weapons and C4 explosives found. The country's Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz, who met with the UN's Human Rights Commission in Geneva, stresses that those responsible for violence will be processed and punished according to the law.

She says the official death toll since the troubles flared is 28, with 365 injured.
The mayor of Valencia, Miguel Cocchiola, is blaming the shooting incidents on pro-government vigilante groups, known as Colectivos.

While the Venezuelan Government insists they are trying to resist a right-wing coup, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is urging them to halt a campaign of terror against their own people. Kerry says a dialogue must be found between the two sides.

A laudable aim but, as the arrests and death toll continue to rise, further polarization fuelling festering bitterness makes reconciliation ever harder.

Listen to the report by James Blears: