Criticism mounts against Maduro in disputed Venezuelan vote

International criticism of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro mounted on Tuesday, a day after electoral authorities declared him the winner in a presidential election that the opposition claims to have won by a landslide.

The Organisation of American States chastised Mr Maduro for his government’s sustained repression of the opposition.

It also lambasted the National Electoral Council, which is loyal to the ruling party, for its delay in showing precinct-level results to prove the president secured the most votes in Sunday’s election.

“The worst form of repression, the most vile, is to prevent the people from finding solutions through elections,” the organisation said in a statement.

“The obligation of each institution in Venezuela should be to ensure freedom, justice, and transparency in the electoral process.

“The people should have the maximum guarantees of political freedom to be able to express themselves at the polls, and to protect the rights of citizens to be elected.”

The organisation, which has called an urgent meeting of its members to discuss Venezuela’s election, even suggested that a new vote should take place to resolve the widely different results that electoral authorities and the opposition presented Monday.

The do-over, the organisation said, would require robust international observation.

Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets nationwide on Monday to protest the results announced by the electoral council.

As they marched, opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez announced that his campaign has the proof it needs to show he won.

Mr Gonzalez and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado told reporters they have obtained more than 70% of tally sheets, which show Mr Gonzalez won more than double the number of Maduro’s votes.

Both urged their supporters to remain calm and invited them to gather peacefully on Tuesday.

In the capital, Caracas, people were expected to demonstrate outside a building that houses the offices of the United Nations.

“I speak to you with the calmness of the truth,” Mr Gonzalez said, as dozens of supporters cheered outside campaign headquarters in Caracas.

“We have in our hands the tally sheets that demonstrate our categorical and mathematically irreversible victory.”

Monday’s protests in Caracas were mostly peaceful, but when dozens of national police officers wearing riot gear blocked the caravan, a brawl broke out.

Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters, some of whom threw stones and other objects at the officers who were deployed on a main avenue of an upper-class district.

A man fired a gun as the protesters moved through the city’s financial district.

No one was injured in that incident.

However, attorney general Tarek William Saab said on Tuesday that more than 700 people had been detained in connection with the protests, in which one officer died.

Mr Saab said a combined 48 military and police officers also were injured.

Charges against some of the detainees will include terrorism, he added.

Monday’s demonstrations followed an election that was among the most peaceful in recent memory, reflecting hopes that Venezuela could avoid bloodshed and end 25 years of single-party rule.

The winner would take control of an economy recovering from collapse and a population desperate for change.

“We have never been moved by hatred. On the contrary, we have always been victims of the powerful,” Mr Maduro claimed in a nationally televised ceremony.

“An attempt is being made to impose a coup d’état in Venezuela again of a fascist and counterrevolutionary nature.”

“We already know this movie and this time there will be no kind of weakness,” he added, saying that Venezuela’s “law will be respected”.

In the port city of La Guaira, people toppled a statue of Mr Maduro’s mentor and predecessor, Hugo Chavez, dragged it to the street and set it on fire during Monday’s protests.

Mr Maduro unveiled the statue in 2017, and by Tuesday, all that remained was its base, littered with twisted rebar and broken cement.

US President Joe Biden and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday called on Venezuela’s government to release detailed voting data from the presidential election.