CARACAS: Venezuelan security forces fired tear gas on Monday against protesters challenging an election victory claimed by President Nicolás Maduro but contested by the opposition and contested abroad.
Thousands of people flooded the streets of several districts of the capital, chanting “Freedom, freedom!” and “This government will fall!”
Some tore Maduro’s campaign posters from street posts and burned them. Lots of banging pots and pans, a traditional form of protest in Latin America.
AFP observed National Guard members firing tear gas towards the protesters, some wearing motorcycle helmets and scarves tied over their faces for protection. Some responded by throwing rocks at the guards.
Maduro, 61, attended a meeting on Monday where the National Electoral Council (CNE) confirmed his re-election for a third six-year term until 2031.
At the event, Maduro dismissed international criticism and doubts about the outcome of Sunday’s vote, saying Venezuela was the target of an attempted “coup” of a “fascist and counter-revolutionary” nature.
As international criticism grew, Caracas announced it was withdrawing diplomatic staff from seven Latin American countries that had questioned whether Maduro had actually won.
The election was held amid widespread fears of fraud by the government and a campaign marred by allegations of political intimidation.
Pollsters predicted a clear victory for the opposition, even though courts loyal to the regime barred its popular leader Maria Corina Machado from running for president and challenging Maduro.
In the early hours of Monday, the CNE said Maduro won 51.2 percent of the votes cast, compared to 44.2 percent for Machado’s proxy, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.
The opposition cried foul, saying they had taken at least two-thirds of the vote.
The result prompted expressions of concern about irregularities from the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and several Latin American countries, although many of Venezuela’s allies, including China, Russia and Cuba, congratulated Maduro.
Gonzalez Urrutia, a 74-year-old former diplomat, vowed that “we will not rest until the will of the Venezuelan people is reflected.”
Machado called the election “another fraud” and insisted that Gonzalez Urrutia was the legitimate president-elect of Venezuela.
In a joint statement on Monday, nine Latin American countries called for a “full review of the results in the presence of independent election observers”.
The US-based Carter Center, one of the few organizations allowed to bring observers to Venezuela, urged the CNE to immediately release detailed results at the polling station level.
Brazil and Colombia also pressed for a revision of the figures, while Chile’s president said the result was “hard to believe”.
Peru recalled its ambassador and Panama announced it was cutting ties with Caracas.
Caracas responded on Monday that it was withdrawing diplomatic personnel from Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay for “interventionist actions and statements by these countries.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed “serious concerns” about the election result, while European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged “transparency”.
Independent polls predicted Sunday’s vote would end 25 years of “Chavismo,” the populist movement founded by Maduro’s socialist predecessor and mentor, the late Hugo Chávez.
Maduro has led the once wealthy oil-rich country since 2013. GDP has fallen by 80 percent in the past decade, prompting more than seven million of its 30 million citizens to emigrate.
He is accused of jailing critics and harassing the opposition in an atmosphere of growing authoritarianism.
Votes were cast on machines that sent electronic votes directly to the CNE’s centralized database.
The machines printed paper receipts, which were placed in a container and counted by hand as a back-up measure to be open to public inspection.
The opposition has deployed about 90,000 volunteer election observers across the country.
Sunday’s election was the result of last year’s agreement between the government and the opposition.
The deal led the United States to temporarily ease sanctions imposed after Maduro’s 2018 re-election, which dozens of Latin American and other countries rejected as a fraud.
The sanctions were lifted after Maduro violated the agreed terms.
Venezuela boasts the largest oil reserves in the world, but has seen a significant reduction in production capacity in recent years.
Most Venezuelans live on just a few dollars a month and suffer from a lack of electricity and fuel.
Economic misery in the South American country has been a major source of migration pressure on the southern border of the United States, where immigration is a major issue in the presidential election.
Venezuela protesters teargassed as opposition cries foul play
