Venezuela's protesters hits the street following announcement of election results
Sequel to the recent election in Venezuela, opposition cries out foul and took to the street in what became a big protest against President Maduro
On Monday, demonstrators contesting President Nicolas Maduro's reelection victory—which is contested by the opposition and called into doubt internationally—were met with tear gas by Venezuelan security forces.
Cries of "Freedom, freedom!" and "This government is going to fall" were heard as thousands of people poured into the streets of multiple capital neighborhoods. Some tore and burned Maduro campaign posters off of street signs. A lot of pots and pans were banged, which is a common Latin American method of protest. Maduro, sixty-one, was present at the National Electoral Council (CNE) meeting earlier on Monday, wherein the CNE validated his reelection to a third six-year term, expiring in 2031.
Caracas declared it was removing diplomatic personnel from seven Latin American nations that had questioned whether Maduro had truly won as international condemnation intensified. The election campaign was marred by allegations of political intimidation, and there were widespread concerns that the administration was engaging in fraud. Even though courts supportive of the dictatorship prohibited the opposition's popular leader, Maria Corina Machado, from running for president and opposing Maduro, pollsters had expected a big victory for the opposition.
Early on Monday morning, the CNE reported that Maduro had received 51.2 percent of the total votes cast, as opposed to 44.2 percent for Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, Machado's stand-in.
Afterwards, Attorney General Tarek William Saab connected Machado to a purported hacking "attack" that aimed to "adulterate" the outcomes. While many of Venezuela's friends, including China, Russia, and Cuba, applauded Maduro, the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, and other Latin American countries expressed alarm about the irregularities in the vote.
The 74-year-old ex-diplomat Gonzalez Urrutia has promised that "we will not rest until the will of the Venezuelan people is reflected."
Machado declared Gonzalez Urrutia to be the real president-elect of Venezuela and called the election "another fraud."
One of the few groups permitted to send observers into Venezuela, the US-based Carter Center, pleaded with the CNE to release comprehensive polling station-level results right away.
The president of Chile declared the results to be "hard to believe," while Brazil and Colombia also called for a reexamination of the figures. Recalling its ambassador, Peru announced that it was cutting off ties with Caracas. Retaliating on Monday, Caracas announced that it was removing diplomatic personnel from the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay due to these nations' "interventionist actions and statements."
Since 2013, Maduro has led the formerly affluent, oil-rich nation. With an 80% decline in GDP over the past ten years, over seven million of its thirty million residents have left the country.
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