Erupted across Venezuela Monday. Shortly after sitting President Nicolas
Maduro was declared winner in a disputed election. Their
results were met with doubt in Washington and beyond.
And independent pollsters have called the official numbers implausible in
the Caracas neighborhood of Elva and the city of Maracay
. Police fired tear gas while protesters blocked roads.
A large statue of late President Hugo Chavez invented to
Maduro was torn down in the city of and in
the pro government stronghold of Kia, there was a
traditional cacerola protest, banging pots and pans. I
came to the street, we want freedom. We're
tired of this government. We want to change.
We want to be free in Venezuela. We want
our families to return here. We don't want them
to leave anymore. We want to be free with
our families, the United States in 2018 called Maduro's
re election at that time to be fraudulent. His
most recent win cements his third term in office and
extends the Socialist Party's 25 year rule throughout the years
. Maduro has presided over an economic collapse, the
migration of about a third of the population and sanctions
imposed by the US. The Venezuelan electoral authority said
Maduro won 51% of the vote on Sunday. But
independent pollsters say it was a decisive win for opposition
candidate Edmundo Gonzalez. Gonzalez has repeatedly warned against bloodshed
. However, on TV Monday morning, Maduro claimed
paid agitators assaulted electoral agency officers. We are familiar
with this movie and we know how to face these
situations and how to defeat the violence. Shortly after
the results of Sunday's election were announced. Opposition leader
Maria Corina Machado said the opposition won 73.2% of the
voting tallies Maduro's rival. The former diplomat Gonzalez spoke
to an audience we have in our hands, the
tallies that demonstrate our categorical and mathematically irreversible victory.
The opposition's numbers are sharply different to the country's electoral
commission called the election for Maduro with 51% of the
vote. Machado called on supporters to gather in front
of un offices in Caracas on Tuesday while Maduro's campaign
manager has called on their supporters to march Tuesday as
well. Venezuela's defense minister has warned against allowing a
repeat of the terrible situations of 2014, 2017 and
2019. In those years, anti government protesters took
to the streets and hundreds were killed.