Twitter Photos From Venezuelan Protests

Anti-riot police arrest a student protester at a demonstration in Lecheria, Venezuela. Students have met stiff resistance -- as well as tear gas, rubber bullets and waiting jail cells -- in their clashes with the country's police and National Guard. Though this image was taken by an AP photographer, the images that follow were captured by protesters and posted online to Twitter accounts.

This image circulated online purportedly shows a Venezuelan protester whose back is riddled with injuries from rubber bullets. Students have clashed with police and National Guard forces in Venezuela this week after President Hugo Chavez ordered opposition television stations off the air.

A young man stares briefly into a camera as a sea of hands attempt to staunch wounds on his face that he reportedly suffered during protests in Venezuela this week. Police forces clashed ith students, firing tear gas and rubber bullets into crowds to quell demonstrations in which some protesters threw rocks at government forces.

A woman's calm demeanor belies the injuries she reportedly suffered in student protests in Venezuela. Dissent has been storming over in a country already wracked by water shortages, electricity rationing, alarming crime rates and the plummeting value of its currency, the Venezuelan Bolivar.

A youth stares down at his knee, where he was reportedly shot by police forces on Monday during the second day of nationwide protests in Venezuela. Reports have listed his age as ranging from 13-16 years, though his identity could not be confirmed.

A closer view of the ugly injury reportedly sustained by a Venezuelan youth during student protests on Monday. He did not suffer the worst of it: two students were reported killed in fighting between protesters and pro-government forces.

A Venezuelan youth reportedly suffered this injury to his knee while protesting the Venezuelan government's moves to stifle dissent and increase its stranglehold on opposition media. President Hugo Chavez ordered five cable television stations be taken down because they refused to air his speeches.

A car reportedly belonging to a member of a paramilitary pro-Chavez group burns during the second day of protests in Venezuela. Protests have mounted in the wake of an attempt by President Chavez to silence a dissenting cable station, RCTV. Chavez set off similar demonstrations when he targeted the station in 2007, revoking its broadcast license and forcing the station onto cable.

This image, widely circulated online, adorned the front page of <a target="_blank" href="http://www.el-nacional.com/www/site/p_contenido.php?q=nodo/119691/Nacional/Guardia-Nacional-usa-garra-de-hierro-para-reprimir">El Nacional</a>, a leading Venezuelan newspaper. The original caption reads, in translation, "National Guardsmen suppressing the students in Maracaibo and other state capitals showed a new yet primitive weapon: a thick chain with hooks capable of tearing and doing serious damage to those attacked."