Protests spread around Venezuela and police fired tear gas in the capital Caracas as the opposition said it had voting-tally proof it won a weekend election awarded to long-ruling socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

Demonstrations began after the election board, which critics say is in the pocket of a dictatorial government, declared on Monday that Maduro had won a third term with 51% of the vote, extending his “Chavista” movement’s quarter-century rule.

But the opposition said the 73% of vote tallies to which it has access showed its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez had won by a landslide, with more than twice as many votes as Maduro.

Many Venezuelans staged “cacerolazos”, a traditional Latin American protest where people bang pots and pans in anger.

Some blocked roads, lit fires and threw petrol bombs at police as protests proliferated around the nation, including near the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas.

“We are tired of this government, we want a change. We want to be free in Venezuela. We want our families to return here,” said one masked protester, referring to the exodus of about a third of Venezuelans in recent years.

Police with shields and batons in Caracas and the city of Maracay fired tear gas to disperse some protests.

Many demonstrators rode motorbikes and jammed streets or draped themselves in the Venezuelan flag. Some covered their faces with scarves as protection against tear gas.

The government calls them violent agitators.

“I’ll fight for my country’s democracy. They stole the election from us,” said another unidentified protester.

In Coro, the capital of Falcon state, protesters cheered and danced when they tore down a statue depicting late president Hugo Chavez, Maduro’s mentor who ruled from 1999-2013.

A local monitoring group, the Venezuelan Conflict Observatory, said it had registered 187 protests in 20 states as of 6 p.m. on Monday with “numerous acts of repression and violence” carried out by paramilitary groups and security forces.

Maduro, in a live broadcast from the presidential palace, said his forces were keeping the peace. The armed forces have long supported him and there were no signs generals were breaking from the government.

“We have been following all of the acts of violence promoted by the extreme right,” Maduro said.

“We’ve seen this movie before.”

DEATHS

At least two people were killed in connection with the vote count or protests, one in the border state of Tachira and another in Maracay.

Maduro, a 61-year-old former union leader and foreign minister, won election after Chavez’s death in 2013 and was re-elected in 2018. The opposition said both votes were rigged.

He has presided over an economic collapse, mass migration, and deteriorating relations with the West including U.S. and EU sanctions that have crippled an already struggling oil industry.

His Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino warned against allowing a repeat of the “terrible situations of 2014, 2017 and 2019” when waves of anti-government protests led to hundreds of deaths and failed to dislodge Maduro.

Independent pollsters called the declaration of Maduro’s victory implausible, and governments in Washington and elsewhere questioned the results and urged a full tabulation of votes.

“Not even (Maduro) believes the electoral scam he is celebrating,” said Argentina’s President Javier Milei.

Peru ordered Venezuelan diplomats to leave within 72 hours, citing “serious and arbitrary decisions made today by the Venezuelan regime.”

But political allies, including Russia and Cuba, backed Maduro. President Vladimir Putin said he would always be welcome in Russia, while Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel congratulated him for having “cleanly and unequivocally defeated the pro-imperialist opposition.”

The Organization of American States said it would meet on Wednesday in Washington to discuss the Venezuela election.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was barred from running in the poll but has spearheaded the campaign for Gonzalez, called for marches on Tuesday.

“My dear Venezuelans, tomorrow we meet; as a family, organized, demonstrating the determination we have to make every vote count and defend the truth,” she said.

The government is also planning pro-Maduro rallies.

(Reuters)