A Picture and Its Story: Venezuela: death of a protester
Over months of protests Carlos Garcia Rawlins has been on Venezuela's streets daily, documenting increasingly violent clashes with security forces, experience that helped put him within eyeshot of a soldier who fatally wounded a young activist at close range. David Jose Vallenilla, 22, was crouched down on the highway by a fence. At this moment he stood up, protected only by a small rucksack strapped to his chest, and just a few feet from the soldier, who began shooting. Garcia captured the moment in a series of photos, as Vallenilla falls to the ground, then gets to his feet to escape, as another activist wrapped in the Venezuelan flag and carrying a flimsy wooden shield tries to give him cover and also comes under fire. Garcia rushed in as protesters gathered round Vallenilla to drag him away, and captured another stark image, of the young man's face as paramedics drove him away on a motorbike. "By then he looked very bad, badly injured," he said. Vallenilla died in hospital a few minutes later. At least 75 people have been killed since the protests began in April. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins SEARCH "VALLENILLA CARACAS" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY. Matching text: VENEZUELA-POLITICS/PROTESTER