Mass protests broke out across Venezuela on Monday and Tuesday in reaction to incumbent socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro’s questionable claim to victory in the country’s presidential election on Sunday, according to multiple reports.
Maduro declared himself the winner of the presidential election despite concerns that votes had been tampered with and the election set in his favor. With the opposing party refusing to concede defeat and the international community condemning the election as rigged, protesters have taken to the streets of Venezuela to decry Maduro as his regime works to suppress resistance, according to several accounts.
“I’ll fight for my country’s democracy. They stole the election from us,” one masked protester told Reuters.
“We are tired of this government, we want a change. We want to be free in Venezuela. We want our families to return here,” another protester told Reuters.
Protesters took to Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, reaching government installations that had not seen such demonstrations in decades, according to The New York Times and Reuters. Some protesters in Caracas and other cities ripped apart posters of Maduro while others lit fires in the streets and threw petrol bombs at law enforcement, which in turn fired tear gas to disperse crowds.
A crowd of protesters attempted to reach the presidential palace but were stopped by law enforcement, according to the Times. Another crowd in Cumana, located hundreds of miles from Caracas, made its way toward Venezuela’s election headquarters but was stonewalled by the National Guard.
Flights coming into Venezuela from Panama and the Dominican Republic will be suspended starting on Wednesday amid the spike in protests, according to CNN. Maduro’s government decried the protesters as insurgents.
Maduro’s government has already excommunicated several diplomatic missions from Latin American countries that have decried the elections as rigged, according to the Times. The government also announced investigations into members of the opposition party on accusations of election fraud.The U.S. and several members of the West have declared Maduro’s claim to victory as baseless and an attempt to stay in power while undermining democracy, similar to their reactions to his questionable 2018 reelection.
The government and the electoral council have refused to release a detailed tally of the voting results, even as it declared victory for Maduro — further raising concerns that the election had been stolen, according to the Times.
“Not even (Maduro) believes the electoral scam he is celebrating,” Argentinian President Javier Milei said on Tuesday of Venezuela’s elections, according to Reuters.
Featured image credit: Maduro screenshot/PBS NewsHour
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