Tensions in Venezuela are growing after election authorities loyal to the authoritarian regime of President Nicolás Maduro officially declared him the winner of the presidential contest held Sunday, without releasing precinct-by-precinct vote counts that would verify the results. The opposition party has also claimed victory, based on independent exit polls and paper tallies collected at voting booths by political party monitors.
Thousands of Venezuelans flooded the streets of the nation’s capital for a second day on Tuesday to protest the election results.
Opposition supporters gathered near a United Nations building as Edmundo González, the opposition presidential candidate, and María Corina Machado, the main leader behind the movement, advanced through the enormous crowd in an open-roofed white van.
Despite their calls for a peaceful protest, after the march González said in a video message posted on social media that there had been fatalities. “Unfortunately, in the last hours we have reports of people dead, dozens injured and detained,” he said. González called on Venezuelan armed forces “to respect the will of Venezuelans.” NBC News could not independently verify the exact number of protesters killed or injured in the confrontations.
Violence continued to spread across the South American nation after Sunday’s election, with some throwing stones and Molotov cocktails, as many rode motorcycles and marched while holding Venezuelan flags.
Gonzalez and Machado’s call to rally on Tuesday came after they said that they had obtained more than 70% of paper tally sheets from polling booths nationwide. Machado told reporters these tallies show González won over Maduro by a landslide. The New York Times reported the tallies show that González received at least 3.5 million more votes than Maduro.
The opposition leaders added they are working to release that information online soon.
Election Day unfolded relatively peacefully, as many Venezuelans viewed this contest as the final opportunity for a shift away from Chavismo, a socialist-inspired political movement turned authoritarian that began nearly three decades ago with the election of Hugo Chávez and, after his death, continued under Maduro’s leadership.
A statue of Chávez that Maduro had erected in 2017 in the port city of La Guaira was toppled, dragged to the street and set on fire by protesters on Monday.
