Venezuela's security forces have engaged in a "pattern of serious abuses" against anti-government protesters, including the use of torture, with the apparent aim of punishing political dissent, Human Rights Watch said Monday.

In a damning report, the rights group said members of the Venezuelan attorney general's office and the judiciary in many cases "knew of, participated in, or otherwise tolerated abuses against protesters and detainees, including serious violations of their due process rights."

Several thousand people took to the streets of Caracas and other Venezuelan cities Saturday to protest education reform plans and restrictions on the right to demonstrate.

The marches are the latest in a spate of at times violent anti-government unrest that erupted in February and has claimed at least 41 lives.

Venezuela's government and opposition, holding talks to address the root causes of months of deadly protests, are determined to achieve results, an opposition leader said Thursday.

Speaking after a fourth session of negotiations, Ramon Aveledo said the two sides had agreed to establish commissions to work on specific issues such as amnesty for more than 100 people arrested in the protests and alleged abuses by police.

A Venezuelan opposition coalition and President Nicolas Maduro's government will meet for new talks aimed at ending more than two months of deadly anti-government protests, officials said Tuesday.

"We have a date, Thursday, but we still do not have a time and place," said Ramon Guillermo Aveledo of the Democratic Unity (MUD).

Fresh clashes erupted in Venezuela's capital on Sunday, with hooded anti-government protesters hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails at riot police who returned fire with rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon.

Four people were reported injured in the unrest that erupted in Caracas's upscale Chacao neighborhood, a hotbed of anti-government opposition.

Venezuela's government and opposition reported progress Tuesday in a new round of talks aimed at ending two months of deadly protests that have rocked the oil-rich nation.

The government again rejected an opposition demand for amnesty for 175 people arrested in the disturbances. But the head of the government delegation, Vice President Jorge Arreaza, left the possibility open for the future.

A total of 181 journalists have been the target of attacks, thefts or arbitrary detentions in Venezuela since the start of anti-government protests two months ago, a reporters' union said Saturday.

The Union of Press Workers said 60 percent of the attacks were carried out by security forces, with just a quarter done by demonstrators on either side.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leaders traded barbs during six hours of nationally televised talks that ended at dawn Friday, a rocky first attempt to end deadly anti-government protests.

Opposition leaders demanded amnesty for people arrested in two months of protests and the disarmament of radical pro-government civilian groups they accuse of terrorizing demonstrators.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leaders traded barbs for six hours on national TV late Thursday over two months of nationwide anti-government protests but found no common ground.

Opposition leaders demanded among other things amnesty for people arrested in the protests in this oil-rich but troubled country. But Maduro refused these demands in the first such meeting since the unrest erupted.

President Nicolas Maduro and Venezuela's opposition leaders are to meet Thursday for talks aimed at ending two months of deadly anti-government protests.

The agreed to dialogue would be unprecedented under Maduro, who succeeded Hugo Chavez last year following the long-standing leader's death from cancer.