CARACAS – Venezuelan police threw tear gas on Saturday at the head of the opposition march against the new Education Law, when some of the participants tried to go beyond the limits set by the government.

The hurling of tear gas occurred when march leaders knocked down security barriers marking the end of the opposition demonstration.

After the gas was thrown, most of the demonstrators fell back except for small groups that had thrown rocks and other objects at the security forces, then changed their attitude and came forward, some with their faces covered, with their hands in the air and indicating a non-aggressive attitude.

After the first skirmishes, the situation calmed down for a few minutes until a second attempt to pass through the limits was cut short by tear gas.

Spokespersons for the most radical of the opposition groups had already said they weren’t going to respect the limits set by the authorities for the end of the march, because their goal was to go downtown, where the “Chavistas” were.

Opposition lawmaker Juan Jose Molina denied that those at the head of the march had given any reason for tear gas to be thrown, and according to his interpretation it was all due to the “fear” the police felt when some students, “with their vehemence,” shook the security barriers.

The march went off in a completely normal way until it reached the place the government said it had to end.

Before the protesters took to the streets, the secretary general of the opposition Democratic Action (AD) party, Henry Ramos, predicted there would be disturbances.

“We’re ready to withstand the repression prepared for us by that terrorist (Interior Minister Tarek El Aissami) who unfortunately is minister,” Ramos said.

He also said that the police who would be watching the march develop “are not there to stop disturbances but to intimidate the opposition.”

According to images on television, several people were affected by the tear gas and at least one was cut when hit by a tear-gas bomb.

The deputy minister of security, Juan Romero, admitted that it was “a small group” that “broke through the security barrier and attacked the police with stones, bottles and blunt objects.”

Earlier this month, Venezuela’s National Assembly approved an educational overhaul that opponents of the leftist government say will foster Cuba-style ideological indoctrination in the nation’s schools.

Venezuela’s socialist government denies those accusations and says the new law will promote different currents of thought and provide poor Venezuelans with greater access to education.