EL UNIVERSAL

The dean of the Faculty of Juridical and Political Sciences, Central University of Venezuela (UCV), Jorge Pabón, reported that a gang of armed individuals stormed in the campus and lambasted the students who were returning Wednesday from a march to the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ).

Pabón said that some students were wounded, particularly a student at the School of Journalism, whose "ear was broken."

The group, termed by Pabón as pro-government, presumably set fire to a bus that was inside the campus.

"This is violence intended to prevent people from speaking up," Pabón told private news TV channel Globovisión.

As reported by the TV channel, there were clashes among students, particularly at the School of Social Work, where some of the gang members sought refuge.

Students were trying to evict them from the premises. There were rumors of shot people, said Globovisión.

"They are violent groups that respect nothing; all that they want is to impose what they please in a given moment," said Pabón.

According to the dean, the subjects were waiting for the students as they arrived from the march, and "hit and knocked them down."

The dean claimed that the situation inside the university was very strained; students were running to seek refuge.

"There is a person with a pistol; there are three people injured, and they have hurled tear gas (…) I saw the person shooting with my own two eyes," student Carlos Mayorca told Globovisión.

"I was there in the march, and they started to hurl rocks from the building; there was shooting and someone was wounded; he was seriously shot in his leg. There are five people in red shirts, hurling stones at us. We have to act; we are fed up; cannot stand it any more," said a student at the Faculty of Dentistry.