Protesters clashed with police after Maduro’s victory bid

Venezuelan security forces have fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters over a dispute over Sunday’s election results.

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

Protests broke out in the capital of Venezuela a day after President Nicolás Maduro claimed victory.

Opposition parties have denounced Mr Maduro’s declaration as a fraud, saying his candidate Edmundo González won in a landslide with 73.2% of the vote.

Opinion polls before the election suggested a clear victory for the rival.

Opposition parties have rallied behind Mr González in a bid to oust President Maduro after 11 years in power, amid widespread discontent over the country’s economic woes.

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

A large force of soldiers and police, including water cannons, were on the streets of Caracas in an attempt to disperse the protesters and prevent them from approaching the presidential palace.

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

Pictures showed burning tires on highways and crowds of people on the streets, police on motorcycles firing tear gas.

In some places, posters of President Maduro were torn down and burned and tires, cars and garbage were set on fire.

Armed police, soldiers and paramedics sympathetic to the government clashed with protesters and blocked several streets in the city center.

The BBC spoke to a number of people who attended one of the protests in the crowded area known as La Lucha, which means “the fight”.

Paola Sarzalejo, 41, said the vote was “very bad, fraudulent. We won by 70%, but they did the same to us. They also took the election from us.

“We want a better future for our youth, our country.”

His father Miguel, 64, agreed, saying: “He lost the election, he has no right to be there right now.”

He continued: “We want a better future for the youth because if not, they will leave the country.” One where they can work well and earn well. We have a rich country and you are destroying everything.

“If all the youth leave, there will only be old people left in Venezuela, only old people.”

Cristobal Martinez, wearing a Venezuelan flag, said he thought the election was a “fraud”.

He said that the majority of young people from La Lucha and its surroundings voted in the elections which are very important for young people as “most of us do not work” and “most do not study”.

“I was voting for the first time in my life. I was there from six o’clock in the morning until nine o’clock in the morning and I saw many people gathering in the street.

“There was a lot of dissatisfaction with the government. Most of the people were involved for change.”

He said that during the long term of President Maduro there was no “change” and “it is worse since the death of President Chavez”.

He accused the elderly who sympathize with the government for living on bonuses or food handouts and “we want change, we want decent jobs, a good future for our country”.

Mr. Martinez said he wants “people from other countries to help us… so that a disaster does not happen like in the past”.

Mr. Maduro accused the opposition parties of seeking a coup against the results. “This is not the first time we have faced what we are facing today,” he said.

“They are trying to force Venezuela to overthrow the regime of a fascist and oppositional character.”

Venezuela’s attorney general has warned that blocking roads or violating any laws related to disruption as part of the protests will be met with the full force of the law and that 32 people have been arrested on charges ranging from destroying election materials to inciting violence. .

Meanwhile, senior administration officials in the US said the declared result “does not follow the data we have obtained using rapid counting methods and other sources, which suggests that the declared result may conflict with the way people voted”.

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

“That’s why we’re asking Venezuela’s electoral authorities to release the data that supports the numbers they’ve publicly announced.”

However, the US has not yet clarified what the result means for its sanctions policy towards Venezuela. Officials stressed that despite their doubts about the outcome, President Maduro called the election and allowed an opposition candidate to be on the ballot – even though the opposition leader was barred from running.

The Organization of American States (OAS) announced late Monday that it will hold a meeting on Wednesday of its permanent council on the outcome of Venezuela.