CARACAS: Venezuela’s opposition vowed no letup Tuesday in its bid to remove leftist President Nicolas Maduro from power even as more protesters were shot dead in an increasingly violent political crisis.

Maduro’s center-right rivals planned to push on with a wave of street protests that have seen 26 people killed this month in clashes involving protesters and security forces.

In the latest unrest, public prosecutors said a 23-year-old man died from being shot in the head with a shotgun in overnight protests in northwestern Lara state. Prosecutors did not immediately say who was believed to have been responsible.

The opposition blames Maduro for shortages of food, medicine and other essentials in the oil-rich country.

Maduro says the crisis stems from what he calls a US-backed capitalist conspiracy.

He has resisted more than a year of political efforts to vote him out of office, though he said over the weekend that he was willing to hold regional elections.

With few options left to get rid of him before the end of his term in late 2018, the opposition is urging all-out street rallies to push for elections.

“Let us not surrender. If we manage to keep up this pressure we will achieve change,” said senior opposition lawmaker Freddy Guevara.

“On Wednesday we will return to the streets” for a march in central Caracas to put pressure on state institutions loyal to Maduro, he said.

Falling prices for Venezuela’s crucial oil exports have slashed its revenues, leading to critical shortages and looting.

The courts and electoral authorities have fended off efforts to remove Maduro since an opposition majority took over the National Assembly in January 2016.

But moves by the Supreme Court to seize power from the assembly and ban senior opposition leader Henrique Capriles from politics galvanized the opposition and drew international condemnation.

“The opposition is more unified around the streets and seems to be reinvigorated, while the international community seems unlikely to back down,” said the US-based Eurasia Group consultancy.—AFP