Protesters in Venezuela paid their final respects to a teenager who was killed this week during a demonstration against President Nicolas Maduro.

Hundreds of protesters stopped Friday and knelt at a makeshift shrine, the site in Caracas where 17-year-old student Neomar Lander was killed Wednesday in clashes with police. 

Venezuela’s opposition says the teen was killed by a tear gas canister fired directly at him, while the government says the youth died when a homemade mortar exploded in his hands.

In a news conference, Vice President Tareck El Aissami blamed the opposition for fomenting violence at the protests.

Demonstrators marched Friday to the headquarters of the Venezuelan Commission of National Telecommunications (CONATEL) to demand that it allow independent media outlets to operate.

The near-daily protests against the government of President Maduro have gone on for more than two months, leading to at least 65 deaths among pro- and opposition demonstrators, bystanders and security forces.

The socialist president has grown increasingly unpopular, as the country suffers crippling shortages of basic goods, however he retains control of the military.
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