Protesters have taken to the streets again in Venezuela as opposition leaders are disputing the results of a weekend election that saw President Nicolas Maduro secure another term in power.
The opposition’s Maria Corina Machado called for families to turn out on Tuesday for “popular assemblies” across the South American nation.
Machado told reporters a day earlier that a review of available voting records from Sunday’s election showed that presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez had achieved a “categorical and mathematically irreversible” victory over Maduro.
The two opposition leaders appeared at a gathering in the capital of Caracas on Tuesday. “What we are fighting here is a fraud by the regime,” said Machado, urging peaceful protest.
A large crowd, many waving Venezuelan flags, chanted: “We are not afraid!”
Opposition protesters also marched in the cities of Valencia, Maracay, San Cristobal, Maracaibo and Barquisimeto throughout the day.
The demonstrations come a day after Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) formally confirmed that Maduro had been re-elected by a majority of Venezuelans to another six-year term as president “for the period 2025-2031”.
That announcement fuelled widespread anger and pushed thousands of Venezuelans to take to the streets of several neighbourhoods in Caracas and elsewhere to voice their opposition to Maduro and his government.
They were met by tear gas and rubber bullets fired by police.
A local monitoring group, the Venezuelan Conflict Observatory, said it had registered 187 protests in 20 states by Monday evening with “numerous acts of repression and violence” carried out by paramilitary groups and security forces.
At least 11 people had been killed in incidents related to the election count or the protests, rights group Foro Penal said Tuesday.
“In just one day, we had 11 deaths,” the organisation’s chief Alfredo Romero told reporters in Caracas, expressing concern about “the use of firearms” in the demonstrations.
Meanwhile, Venezuela opposition party Voluntad Popular said in a social media post on Tuesday that its national coordinator Freddy Superlano had been detained.
Gonzalez, the opposition presidential candidate, has urged the country’s security forces to “respect the will” expressed at the ballot box on Sunday and “stop the repression of peaceful demonstrations”.
“We Venezuelans want peace and respect for the popular will,” he wrote on social media on Tuesday.
Maduro dismisses criticism
Maduro has dismissed international criticism and doubts about the result of Sunday’s voting, saying without any evidence that Venezuela was the target of an attempted “coup d’etat” of a “fascist and counter-revolutionary” nature.
His government has called the protesters violent agitators and Maduro on Tuesday directly blamed Gonzalez, his presidential challenger, for the deteriorating situation.
“I hold [Gonzalez] responsible for everything that is happening in Venezuela, criminal violence … the wounded, the dead, the destruction,” said the Venezuelan leader, who first came to power in 2013 after the death of his mentor and predecessor Hugo Chavez.
Maduro also warned that “justice will come”.
His campaign manager Jorge Rodriguez had called for “large marches starting this Tuesday to celebrate the victory”.
Earlier in the day, Venezuelan Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino said Maduro had the “absolute loyalty and unconditional support” of the armed forces. Maduro is “our commander in chief, who has been legitimately re-elected”, the minister said in a televised message.
Attorney General Tarek William Saab told reporters that 749 people had been arrested during the protests so far, adding that most would be charged with “resisting authority and, in the most serious cases, terrorism”.
Renata Segura, programme director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that there are concerns over the prospect of a widespread protest crackdown.
“As pressure continues to build around President Maduro, as Latin America and the rest of the world is refusing to acknowledge his winning in the polls unless he shows proof that there was no fraud, it can get very tricky,” Segura said.
“It can get violent very, very quickly.”
United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk also raised concerns about “reports of disproportionate use of force by law enforcement officials along with violence by armed individuals supporting the government, known as colectivos”.
“Those responsible for human rights violations must be held to account, Turk said in a statement, adding that Venezuela was at a “critical juncture”.
“I urge the authorities to respect the rights of all Venezuelans to assemble and protest peacefully and express their views freely and without fear,” he said.
International reaction
The results have spurred divided reactions from foreign governments, with the United States, European Union and several Latin American countries calling for a “transparent” process while Venezuela’s allies including China, Russia and Cuba congratulated Maduro.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that the Venezuelan opposition must accept defeat and warned against external interference.
The election observation department of the Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS) said it cannot recognise the results. The OAS is set to hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss the election on Wednesday.
The report released by the group stated that the events of election night confirmed a “coordinated strategy, which has been unfolding over the last few months, to undermine the integrity of the electoral process”.
That followed a decision by Peru to recall its ambassador to Venezuela and Panama saying it was suspending relations with the country over the disputed vote.
Left-wing leaders in Latin America have also urged Caracas to release the full vote tallies.
“For peace in Venezuela, it’s necessary to see all the certificates of the final results and for them to be audited by the world,” Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Murillo said in a video posted on social media on Tuesday afternoon.
Caracas has hit back at the criticism, saying it was withdrawing diplomatic staff from Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay. It also suspended flights to and from Panama and the Dominican Republic.
The ongoing political unrest has raised concerns about potential repression of peaceful protests, as well as a new wave of migration from Venezuela.
The country has experienced an economic collapse that pushed millions of people to leave in recent years.
