Amid fresh clashes in Caracas, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has warned anti-government protesters that he could send security forces in to remove them and their barricades.

Six weeks of unrest over issues like corruption and shortages of basic products have left at least 28 people dead.

Two of the victims were remembered in a peaceful march in the central city of Valencia.

The government accuses Washington of stirring unrest. Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Elias Jaua even labelled US Secretary of State John Kerry “a murderer”.

At the same time Maduro, successor to the late left-wing firebrand President Hugo Chavez, has urged the US to join a commission for what he called the two countries “peace and sovereignty”.

That is more than unlikely. The US says Venezuela uses it as a scapegoat for the country’s own internal economic and political problems.