(16 Jan 1997) Spanish/Nat
University professors went on strike across Venezuela on Wednesday, joining striking doctors in demands for higher wages.
Their strike provoked violent riots as students clashed with police over the closure of their university.
The protests mark some of the worst labour and social conflicts of President Rafael Caldera's three-year presidency.
In all, 35-thousand professors walked out at 17 universities, idling a half-million students.
Students at the Caracas Instituto Universitario Pedagogico clashed with police Thursday as they protested against the closure of their university.
They threw Molotov cocktails and shouted "No to university closures".
Students fear that with professors on strike demanding higher wages their education will be interrupted indefinitely.
The Venezuelan Federation of Associations of University Professors decided at a meeting Thursday to go ahead with their demands.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"They (the government) failed to comply with the actual laws regulating salary rises for this sector (university professors). We are also supporting doctors and other professionals in the country whose wages --due to a wrong policy by the government- , for these sectors and in general everybody in the country, have decreased drastically to the point that they cannot even support their families."
SUPER CAPTION: Jose Rafael Casal Heredia, President of the Venezuelan Federation of Associations of University Professors (FAPUV)
Central University of Venezuela, in Caracas, was one of the 17 universities that closed down, leaving half-million students without lessons.
Government officials say raising the strikers' salaries would stoke inflation that last year was the highest in Latin America, at 103 percent.
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