Last week hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans clogged streets and spilled into plazas nationwide as residents coordinated massive protests against President Nicolás Maduro's government, an administration they say is to blame for detrimental food shortages, increased insecurity and free speech infringement.
WARNING: SOME IMAGES BELOW ARE GRAPHIC
Soon after, Maduro's supporters and police force also took to the streets and clashes between groups in the South American country claimed the life of four anti-government protestors and left dozens injured. The Venezuelan leader, successor to Hugo Chávez's ideology and government, issued an arrest order for opposition leader Leopoldo López on Saturday, accusing him of terrorism and the deaths of the protestors who had participated in the protest that López had encouraged.
Maduro also gave three U.S. diplomats 48 hours to leave Venezuela, accusing them of siding with anti-government protestors.
López turned himself over to police on Tuesday, an act that quickly escalated protests and violent clashes. Before his arrest he told supporters "I have nothing to hide" and that he surrendered himself to "an unjust judiciary system... May my jailing serve to wake up a people," according to Reuters.
A fifth victim was officially reported on Wednesday. Venezuelan beauty queen Génesis Carmona, 22, died in a Valencia hospital after receiving a gun shot to the head while participating in an anti-government protest the previous day.
Throughout the turmoil, Venezuelan nationals at home and abroad -- as well as other sympathizers -- have used social media to voice their solidarity and diffuse images of the protest worldwide using hashtags such as #PrayForVenezuela, #IAmYourVoiceVenezuela and #SOSVenezuela.
Below, check out these images that beg you to #PrayForVenezuela:
WARNING: SOME IMAGES BELOW ARE GRAPHIC