Venezuelans rally against disputed election as tensions rise

Tens of thousands of residents of the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, demonstrated against the official results of Sunday's presidential election, according to which Nicolás Maduro won for the third consecutive time. The opposition, numerous Latin American countries, and the Organization of American States (OAS) also contest the election results.

According to the National Electoral Commission's statement, Maduro secured 51.2% of the vote, while opposition candidate diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, representing the largest bloc of Maduro regime opponents, garnered 44.2 percent.

According to the Venezuelan democratic opposition, their candidate in Sunday's presidential election, Edmundo González Urrutia, secured 6.2 million votes, a clear majority.

Hundreds of demonstrators, breaking through the police blockade, rode motorbikes into the government district of Caracas, where the presidential palace is located, chanting towards Maduro and his government: "Down with him, down with him, he must fall!"

The same chants, alternating with the crowd of young people collectively shouting "Freedom, freedom!" echoed in Petare, an extensive capital district of Caracas's poorest residents.

Street protests against "another electoral fraud by Nicolás Maduro's government" continued throughout Monday in many other districts of the Venezuelan capital.

"Venezuelan military units are now greeting the protestors instead of stopping them. Nicolás Maduro is slowly losing the loyalty of his entire military. Socialism is dying." - reads a post on platform X.

The police completely blocked access to the wealthiest, elite capital district of Las Mercedes. When police officers used tear gas, a barrage of stones was thrown at them.

While the government announced in an official statement the third consecutive electoral victory of Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan Attorney General's Office announced the initiation of an investigation into the alleged "opposition plan to falsify the election."

Meanwhile, María Corina Machado, the leader of the Venezuelan democratic opposition, whose pre-election polls guaranteed her victory and whom the Maduro regime prevented from running in the election, announced on Monday that, according to reliable data obtained by the opposition, Maduro's opponents secured 73.2 percent of the vote.

The European Union joined the United States, Chile, Colombia, and Brazil—the first countries to express doubts about the election's conduct.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on the Venezuelan authorities to ensure "complete transparency" in the election and allow citizens to "peacefully express their will." Meanwhile, Maduro's government did everything to prevent the presence of foreign observers entirely. One of them was former Argentine President Alberto Fernández.

Venezuelan Attorney General William Saab announced the day after the presidential election that an investigation would be opened into the alleged subversive plan prepared by the Venezuelan opposition to falsify the voting results.

Attorney General Saab stated at a press conference that on the day of the election, Venezuela suffered "an attack from North Macedonia" aimed at falsifying the voting results in fifteen thousand localities.

"They wanted to falsify the voting protocols," said the attorney general, adding that "the responsibility for this plan rests with opposition leader María Corina Machado and a few other opposition members of the Voluntad Popular party living in exile."

The Organization of American States (OAS), headquartered in Washington, has called an extraordinary session to address the election results in Venezuela.

The Permanent Council of the OAS was convened at the request of twelve member countries, including the United States, Canada, Guatemala, and Argentina.