CARACAS, VENEZUELA—Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets in wealthy eastern Caracas Thursday amid a tropical downpour to support a protest movement that is gaining steam even as it turns more deadly.

Venezuela officials confirmed earlier in the day that a fifth person had died in the wave of anti-government protests now entering its third week.

The public prosecutor’s office says it will investigate the death of 36-year-old Miguel Colmenares. He was shot at a protest in the central city of Barquisimeto on Tuesday.

Read more:Venezuelans rally to oppose President Maduro as officials attempt to break up crowd

Gruseny Calderon was killed during the same protest. Congressman Alfonso Marquina says the 32-year-old protester was injured by rubber bullets that pierced his lung and liver. </s> “If these other countries don’t recognize Venezuela as a democracy, it will be hard for them to look like a legitimate power,” said David Smilde, an analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights advocacy group. Mr. Smilde mentioned a list of consequences that such isolation could entail, from access to bank loans to straining diplomatic ties with its largest neighbors.

One candidate for the constituent assembly, José Félix Pineda, a 39-year-old lawyer, was killed in his home the night before the vote. Prosecutors said an armed group had broken into Mr. Pineda’s home in Ciudad Bolívar on Saturday night and shot him dead there.

Hours later, a large explosion rocked a middle-class neighborhood in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, injuring at least seven police officers on patrol. Video circulating on social media showed the uniformed officers, all on motorcycles, riding into a fireball that had just erupted in front of them.

Nearby residents applauded as the security forces threw tear gas at them.

As the day wore on, government security forces used water cannons, rubber bullets and batons against protesters, just as they have for the last three months. </s> Argentine legislator Héctor Olivares died three days after being seriously wounded in a gun attack that killed a provincial official, a Senate official said Sunday.

Acting Senate president Federico Pinedo said Olivares died of his wounds earlier in the day.

ARGENTINE LAWMAKER FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE AFTER BEING AMBUSHED BY GUNMEN

At least six people have been detained in what has been described as a "mafia-style" attack Thursday that shocked Argentines. Officials have said two gunmen in a parked car shot wounded Olivares and killed Miguel Marcelo Yadón near the country's congressional building in Buenos Aires.

Olivares, a member of the pro-government Radical Civic Union party, represented La Rioja province in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of congress. Yadón worked for La Rioja's federal electric transportation system.

Authorities have said investigators are working to determine a motive. </s> Mexican independent presidential candidate Maria de Jesus Patricio was injured in a crash that also killed a person riding in her caravan and injured two others Wednesday.

The National Indigenous Council said in a brief statement that an SUV carrying Patricio and 10 other people went off a highway in the state of Baja California Sur.

The group said a woman was killed and council member Francisco Grado was in serious condition. Patricio and council member Lucero Islava also had injuries, the statement said without giving any details.

Patricio has been running as an independent candidate seeking to get a place on the July 1 presidential ballot. However, days before a deadline to gather some 866,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot, she is well short of the requirement. </s> Amid shortages of food and medicine, thousands take to Caracas streets as campaign to topple the president turns deadly.

Fresh clashes have erupted between police and protesters rallying against the Venezuelan government as a fifth person reportedly dies after being shot during earlier unrest.

Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets in eastern Caracas amid a tropical downpour on Thursday to support a protest movement that appears to be gaining steam even as it turns more deadly.

Venezuela officials confirmed later in the day that a fifth person had died in the wave of anti-government protests now entering its third week.

The public prosecutor's office says it will investigate the death of Miguel Colmenares, 36.

He was shot at during a protest in the central city of Barquisimeto on Tuesday.

Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela's socialist president, is fighting off efforts to topple him as Venezuela struggles with shortages of food and medicine.

Dozens of people have been injured and more than 100 arrested over the past week in clashes in various cities, according to authorities.

Alfonso Marquina, an opposition politician, on Twitter identified the latest death as Antonio Gruseny Calderon and called him "another victim of the dictatorship".

Marquina and officials earlier said a 13-year-old boy was shot dead in protests on Tuesday in Barquisimeto.

Marquina blamed that killing on so-called colectivos, armed supporters of the government whom the opposition accuses of attacking them during demonstrations.

A 36-year-old man was killed the same night in Barquisimeto, prosecutors said.

Two 19-year-old students were shot by police in earlier unrest, one on April 6 and one on April 11, according to authorities.

Also on Thursday, Jose Manuel Olivares, another opposition legislator, said police fired tear gas "point-blank" at demonstrators in the state of Vargas.

"If they think they will scare us that way they are wrong. We will stay in the street!" he wrote on Twitter.

While demonstrations are often held in middle-class neighbourhoods, this most recent wave of unrest for the first time has prompted protests in the slums that have historically been bastions of support for the socialist revolution launched nearly two decades ago by Hugo Chavez, the late president.
A least nine people have been killed in the last 24 hours, including Constituent Assembly candidate Jose Felix Pineda, and Accion Democratica Party youth secretary Ricardo Campos.