Venezuelan intelligence agents arrested San Cristobal Mayor Daniel Ceballos in Caracas on Wednesday, where he was taking part in a meeting of opposition mayors.

He was accused of "civil rebellion" and of stoking violence in the city that has been hit harder than anywhere by more than a month of unrest.

Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres, who also heads intelligence service Sebin, said agents had detained Mr Ceballos on the orders of a court in Tachira state, where San Cristobal is located.

"This is an act of justice for a mayor who not only failed to meet his obligations under the law but also facilitated and supported all the irrational violence in this city," he said.

"In the coming hours he will be presented before the appropriate tribunals to begin the judgement process."

Mr Torres said that a member of the national guard had been shot dead in the city that day during what he called "vandalistic acts" by protesters targeting a national armed forces university.

A Caracas municipal worker was killed by multiple gunshots late on the previous day as he and others took down a street barricade set up by opposition demonstrators.

The supreme court had decreed on Monday that the opposition mayors of four municipalities, including San Cristobal, must remove protesters' roadblocks.

It announced that San Diego opposition Mayor Enzo Scarano would be removed from his post and serve 10 months and 15 days in prison for disobeying a March 12 court order to keep protesters from barricading streets in his city.