Hundreds of Venezuelan security forces raided opposition camps in Caracas, arresting 243 people and seizing “drugs, weapons, explosives and mortars” in the tents.  Officials say some would use the camps as bases for “violent attacks”, after which they’d return and blend in with the students organizing the peaceful part of anti-government protests.

Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres said four camps had been cleared in the eastern part of the capital, Caracas.  These neighborhoods were already opposition strongholds, and the weeks of protests that have worsened Venezuela’s economy haven’t spread from there.  But the protesters are determined, and even Thursday’s arrests won’t dissuade them.

“They’ll have to build bigger cells, because we students will continue to fight for our rights,” conservative student leader Juan Requesens wrote on social media.  Of the 243 detained, prosecutors are sorting through to see who will be charged and who will be released.

The government says the protesters are “fascist agitators”, and claim they are trying to foment a coup against President Nicolas Maduro “with US backing”.  More than 40 people have been killed in violence associated with the protests.

In Washington, conservatives in the US Congress are readying a bill that would: ban visas for Venezuelan officials who broke up anti-government protests; freezes the assets of those leaders; and send down US$15 Million in new funds to “promote democracy”.  President Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez were both democratically elected.