Venezuelan security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets Monday at protesters challenging the reelection victory claimed by President Nicolas Maduro but disputed by the opposition and questioned abroad.
Thousands of people flooded the streets of several neighborhoods of the capital, chanting “Freedom, freedom!” and “This government is going to fall!”
Some ripped Maduro campaign posters from street posts and burned them.
Two statues of Hugo Chavez, the late socialist icon who led the country for more than a decade and handpicked Maduro as his successor, were knocked down by protesters.
AFP observed members of the national guard firing tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters, some wearing motorbike helmets and bandannas tied over their faces for protection. Some responded by throwing rocks back.
Protests were reported even in very poor areas of Caracas that had been bastions of support for Maduro and his socialist government. Protests broke out elsewhere in Venezuela, too.
“We want freedom. We want Maduro to go. Maduro, leave!,” Marina Sugey, a 42 year-old resident of a poor area of Caracas called Petare, told AFP.
Maduro, 61, attended a meeting Monday at which the National Electoral Council (CNE) certified his reelection to a third six-year term until 2031.
He dismissed international criticism and doubts about the result of Sunday’s voting, claiming Venezuela was the target of an attempted “coup d’etat” of a “fascist and counter-revolutionary” nature.
But opposition leader Maria Corina Machado later told reporters that a review of voting records available so far clearly showed that the next president “will be Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia,” who took her place on the ballot after she was barred by Maduro-aligned courts.
The records showed a “mathematically irreversible” lead for Gonzalez Urrutia, she said, with 6.27 million votes to only 2.75 million for Maduro.
The elections were held amid widespread fears of fraud by the government and a campaign tainted by accusations of political intimidation.
Pollsters had predicted a resounding victory for the opposition.
In the early hours of Monday, the CNE said Maduro had won 51.2 percent of votes cast compared to 44.2 percent for Gonzalez Urrutia.
The opposition cried foul, prompting Attorney General Tarek William Saab to link Machado to an alleged cyber “attack” seeking to “adulterate” the results.
With AFP
