Gunmen aligned with President Hugo Chavez fired on police officers Saturday after the government accused the Caracas police of killing two people during a melee at an opposition rally a day earlier, the police chief said.
Saturday's shooting increased tensions in Venezuela, where a month-old opposition strike demanding Chavez's resignation has paralyzed oil exports and driven up international oil prices.
The shooting broke out during a wake for one of those slain, Oscar Gomez Aponte, 24. Two officers were wounded while on duty at a small police station next to the Funeraria Valles funeral home in northern Caracas, said Police Chief Henry Vivas.
Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel attended the wake shortly before the attack and claimed the government had a videotape showing city police were responsible for Friday's shooting deaths. The state news agency Venpres also accused Caracas police of triggering Friday's violence.
Gunfire erupted at an opposition march Friday on the headquarters of the armed forces. Military police fired at both Chavez supporters and marchers, and unidentified snipers fired into the crowd.
At least 78 people were injured -- five of them from gunfire. Both sides claimed the two dead as their own.
It wasn't immediately clear why Rangel and the state news agency accused police of the shooting deaths. Isaias Rodriguez, the federal attorney general, had said earlier Saturday that an investigation into Friday's violence was just beginning.
Shortly before Saturday night's attack, Rangel said that the police "came here tonight in order to provoke."
"They're trying to blame us for the deaths and I imagine that's what motivated the attack against us," Vivas said.
Vivas said up to 15 people approached the officers and fired automatic weapons. Some of the attackers may have come from the wake after Rangel's appearance; at least one fled back into the funeral home, he said.
Officers returned fire using rubber bullets and tear gas, Vivas said. There were no immediate arrests.
Chavez tried to take over the city police force -- which reports to an opposition mayor -- last fall. The Supreme Court ordered Chavez to restore the force's autonomy.
Chavez's critics blame his leftist policies for Venezuela's deep recession and accuse him of amassing authoritarian power and arming civilian militias. Chavez says strike leaders are seeking a coup.
Chavez's supporters staged a protest in Caracas on Saturday, while his opponents began raising money for a nonbinding referendum on his rule.
Labor and business leaders began the strike on Dec. 2. Some 35,000 employees of Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. have joined.
The strike has virtually shut down oil production in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, a top supplier to the US. It has helped push international oil prices above US$30 per barrel while oil workers have defied a back-to-work order by the Supreme Court.
Chavez said Friday he might consider imposing martial law to try to break the strike and halt escalating political violence.
Opposition leaders, meanwhile, said the only way they could hold the referendum on Chavez's rule was if they paid for it themselves.
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