Fresh protests loom in Venezuela over disputed election

 

By Kayode Olopade 

Venezuela braced for new demonstrations Tuesday, after four people died and dozens were injured when the authorities broke up protests against President Nicolas Maduro’s claim of victory in the country’s hotly disputed weekend election.

Security forces had fired tear gas and rubber bullets Monday at angry protesters who claimed the election was stolen and flooded the streets chanting “Freedom, freedom!” and “This government is going to fall!”

Some ripped down and burned Maduro campaign posters while at least two statues of Hugo Chavez — the late authoritarian socialist who led Venezuela for more than a decade and handpicked Maduro as his successor — were knocked down by protesters.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said Tuesday 749 “criminals” had been arrested during the protests and faced charges of resisting authority or, “in the most serious cases, terrorism.”

The opposition fiercely contests the outcome of Sunday’s election which authorities say was won by Maduro with 51.2 percent of votes cast compared to 44.2 percent for Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was replaced by Urrutia on the ballot after she was barred from running by Maduro-aligned courts, said voting records showed Urrutia had a “mathematically irreversible” lead.

The opposition count gives Gonzalez Urrutia 6.27 million votes to Maduro’s 2.75 million.

The Organization of American States, a regional body, charged Tuesday there was “exceptional manipulation” of the election results that handed Maduro the win.

The protests that erupted on Monday left 44 injured, most of them with bullet wounds, according to the National Hospital Survey, a network that monitors crises in the country’s hospitals.

Two of the dead were in the state of Aragua Andy one in Caracas, the network said. The NGO Foro Penal meanwhile reported one more dead in the northwestern state of Yaracuy.

“Unfortunately, in the last few hours we have reports of people killed, dozens injured and detained,” Gonzalez Urrutia wrote on X.

He urged security forces to “stop the repression of peaceful demonstrations.”