Vatican City, Apr 30, 2017 / 04:13 am
In his Regina Coeli address on Sunday, Pope Francis called attention to the violence in Venezuela, offering up his prayers for the victims and appealing to the government and citizens to seek solutions to the crisis.
"There is no stop to the arrival of dramatic news about the situation in Venezuela and the aggravation of the clashes with many dead, wounded and detained," he said April 30.
"As I unite myself to the pain of the families of the victims, for which I ensure prayers for suffrage, I appeal to the Government and all the members of Venezuelan society to avoid any further form of violence, to respect human rights and to seek negotiated solutions to the serious humanitarian, social, political and economic crisis that is exhausting the population."
Month-long anti-government demonstrations, political clashes and looting in Venezuela have left at least 22 people dead, the Guardian reports.