CARACAS: Fresh demonstrations were expected in Venezuela on Tuesday after one person died when security forces tried to break up protests sparked by a hotly contested election result that gave Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro a third term in power.
Security forces on Monday fired tear gas and rubber bullets at angry protesters challenging a re-election victory claimed by Maduro but contested by the opposition and questioned by many other countries.
Thousands of people flooded the streets of several neighborhoods in the capital, chanting “Freedom, freedom!” and “This government will fall!”
Some tore Maduro's campaign posters from street poles and burned them.
At least two statues of Hugo Chavez, the late socialist revolutionary who ruled Venezuela for more than a decade and handpicked Maduro as his successor, were toppled by protesters.
One person died in the northwestern state of Yaracuy and 46 were arrested in post-election demonstrations, Alfredo Romero, head of the Foro criminal rights group, which specializes in issues of political prisoners, said on the social media platform X. He did not say what caused death.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) certified the re-election of Maduro, 61, for another six-year term until 2031.
Maduro dismissed international criticism and doubts about the outcome of Sunday's vote, claiming Venezuela was the target of an attempted “coup” of a “fascist and counter-revolutionary” nature.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado told reporters that an analysis of available voting records clearly showed the next president “will be Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia,” who replaced her on the ballot after she was banned by the courts aligned with Maduro.
The records showed a “mathematically irreversible” lead for Gonzalez Urrutia, she said, with 6.27 million votes to Maduro's 2.75 million.
She called on families to attend nationwide “popular gatherings” on Tuesday to show support for a peaceful transition of power.
“There are millions of citizens in Venezuela…who want to see their vote count,” she later posted on X.
Maduro's campaign manager, Jorge Rodriguez, also asked X for “big marches, starting on Tuesday, to celebrate the victory.”
In Caracas on Monday, AFP observed members of the national guard firing tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters, some wearing motorcycle helmets and bandanas tied over their faces. Some responded by throwing stones.
Protests were reported even in poor areas of Caracas, which had been bastions of support for Maduro. Fires were heard in some areas.
“We want freedom. We want Maduro to go. Maduro, go!” Marina Sugey, a 42-year-old resident of Petare, a poor area of Caracas, told AFP.
The election was held amid widespread fears of fraud by the government and a campaign marred by allegations of political intimidation.
The CNE said on Monday that Maduro won 51.2 percent of the votes cast, compared to 44.2 percent for Gonzalez Urrutia.
When the opposition called out the mistake, Attorney General Tarek William Saab linked Machado to an alleged cyber “attack” aimed at “falsifying” the results.
International reactions
The United Nations, the United States, the European Union and several Latin American countries have called for a “transparent” process, while allies such as China, Russia and Cuba have congratulated Maduro.
Gonzalez Urrutia, a 74-year-old former diplomat, on Monday acknowledged deep dissatisfaction with the CNE results and vowed that “we will fight for our freedom.”
Nine Latin American countries called in a joint statement for “a full review of the results with the presence of independent election observers.”
The Carter Center in the US, one of the few organizations that had observers in Venezuela, called on the CNE to immediately publish the detailed results at the polling station level.
Brazil and Colombia also called for a review of the figures, while Chile's president said the result was “hard to believe”.
Peru recalled its ambassador and Panama said it was suspending relations with Venezuela.
The Washington-based Organization of American States called an emergency meeting for Wednesday at the request of Argentina and other countries that disputed the CNE balance sheet.
Caracas responded by saying it was withdrawing diplomatic staff from Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
It also suspended flights to and from Panama and the Dominican Republic.
CRITICAL
Independent polls predicted Sunday's vote would end 25 years of “chavismo,” the populist movement founded by Chavez.
Maduro has been at the helm of the once oil-rich country since 2013. In the past decade, GDP has fallen by 80 percent, pushing more than seven million of Venezuela's 30 million citizens to emigrate.
He is accused of shutting down critics and harassing the opposition in a climate of growing authoritarianism.
In the run-up to the election, he warned of a “bloodbath” if he lost.
Sunday's election was the product of an agreement reached last year between the government and the opposition.
That deal prompted the United States to temporarily ease sanctions imposed after Maduro's 2018 re-election, rejected as a sham by dozens of Latin American and other countries.
The sanctions were lifted after Maduro reneged on agreed terms.
Venezuela boasts the world's largest oil reserves, but production capacity has been severely curtailed in recent years.
Most Venezuelans live on just a few dollars a month and face a shortage of electricity and fuel.
The economic misery in the South American nation has been a major source of pressure on migration to the southern border of the United States, where immigration is a major issue in the presidential election.
