Venezuelans Clash with Police after Disputed Election Result

Security forces in Venezuela have fired tear gas and rubber bullets at people protesting Sunday’s disputed election result.

Thousands of people descended on central Caracas on Monday evening, some walking for miles from slums on the mountains surrounding the city, towards the presidential palace.

Protests erupted in the Venezuelan capital the day after President Nicolás Maduro claimed victory.

The opposition has disputed Mr Maduro’s declaration as fraudulent, saying that after reviewing 73.2% of the voting tallies, it was clear that its candidate, Edmundo González, had won convincingly.

Opinion polls ahead of the election suggested a clear victory for the challenger.
Opposition parties had united behind Mr González in an attempt to unseat President Maduro after 11 years in power, amid widespread discontent over the country’s economic crisis.

A heavy military and police presence was on the streets of Caracas with the aim of trying to disperse protesters and prevent them from approaching the presidential palace.

Crowds of people chanted “freedom, freedom!” and called for the government to fall.

Footage showed tyres burning on highways and large numbers of people on the streets, with police on motorbikes firing tear gas.

In some areas, posters of President Maduro were ripped down and burned while tyres, cars and rubbish were also set alight.

Armed police, military and left-wing paramilitaries who are sympathetic to the government clashed with protesters and blocked off many roads around the city centre.

Venezuela’s government also announced a temporary suspension of commercial air flights to and from Venezuela with Panama and the Dominican Republic starting from 20:00 local time on Wednesday.

In a speech on Venezuelan state television, Mr Maduro said it is his “obligation to tell you the truth”.

“We are all under the obligation to listen the truth, to gear up with patience, calmness and strength because we are familiar with this movie and we know how to face these situations and how to defeat the violent.”

Mr Maduro has accused the opposition of calling for a coup by disputing the results. “This is not the first time we are facing what we are facing today,” he said.

“They are trying to impose in Venezuela a coup d’etat again of fascist and counter-revolutionary character.”

The Venezuelan attorney general warned that the blocking of roads or breaking any laws related to disturbances as part of protests would be met with the full force of the law.

He said 32 people had been detained on accusations ranging from destroying electoral materials to sparking acts of violence.

A number of Western and Latin American countries, as well as international bodies including the UN, have called on the Venezuelan authorities to release voting records from individual polling stations.

Argentina is one country which has refused to recognise President Maduro’s election victory, and in response Venezuela recalled diplomats from Buenos Aires.

Diplomats from six other Latin American countries – Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay – have also been withdrawn for what Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil described on social media as “interventionist actions and statements”.

Meanwhile, US senior administration officials said that the announced result “does not track with data that we’ve received through quick count mechanisms and other sources, which suggests that the result that was announced may be at odds with how people voted”.

That was “the principal source of our concern”, they added.

“That is why we are asking the Venezuelan electoral authorities to release the underlying data that supports the numbers that they have publicly announced.”

However, the US has not yet been drawn on what the result means for their sanctions policy towards Venezuela. Officials have emphasised that while they have doubts about the result, President Maduro did call an election and allow an opposition candidate to be on the ballot paper – even if the opposition leader was banned from running.

The Organization of American States (OAS) announced late on Monday it will hold a meeting on Wednesday of its permanent council over the Venezuelan results.

Source: BBC