Protests erupt in Venezuela as nations denounce election result

CARACAS, Venezuela — Protests broke out Monday in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, with hundreds of young people marching through the streets furious over a presidential election in which the incumbent, Nicolás Maduro, declared victory despite widespread accusations of fraud, officially proclaiming the election decided without releasing the full vote counts.

The United States and countries around the world denounced the official results of Sunday’s vote, which did not appear to match statistical estimates based on partial counts and other data that showed the president losing by a wide margin.

By Monday afternoon, the Venezuelan government announced it had kicked out the diplomatic missions of seven Latin American countries that had condemned the official electoral results.

The opposition leader, María Corina Machado, announced Monday evening that her movement had received paper tallies from 73% of the country’s voting stations and refuted the government’s claims. Those tallies showed that Maduro’s opponent, Edmundo González, had received 3.5 million more votes than the president.

González called the margin “mathematically irreversible.”

The move by the electoral authority to declare victory but not release detailed voting results intensified the sense among many Venezuelans and international observers that the election had essentially been stolen.

But Maduro appeared to dig in, with his government announcing that it was investigating top opposition leaders, accusing them of hacking the electoral computer systems.

Sporadic demonstrations in Caracas on Monday morning grew throughout the day as angry residents headed toward the center of the capital, reaching traditional government strongholds that had not seen political unrest for more than two decades.

The disputed election put renewed attention on the Biden administration’s incentives to Venezuela. United States officials’ negotiations with the authoritarian government and easing of sanctions on the country’s vital oil industry had helped pave the way for Sunday’s voting. For now, the administration said it was not considering revoking any licenses to sell oil.

But the Biden administration also demanded that the Maduro government release vote tabulations, and warned that it risks diplomatic isolation as more countries — including some crucial allies — questioned the lack of transparency of an election that appeared to violate international norms.

The Brazilian government, led by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, distanced itself from Maduro on Monday, despite years of friendly relations between the two leftist leaders.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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