2024-07-30T15:34:00+03:00 World 2024-09-15T04:12:44+03:00

Ukrainian news

Protests in Venezuela swept across country after Maduro was declared president

Protests in Venezuela swept across country after Maduro was declared president

Protests have spread across Venezuela, with police firing tear gas in the country's capital after Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner of the presidential election.

This was reported by the Reuters agency on Tuesday, July 30.

The protests began after the election commission, which critics say is fully controlled by the government, declared Maduro the winner. According to calculations, the incumbent president received 51% of the vote and was elected for a third consecutive term. But the opposition said their calculations showed Edmundo González won 73% of the vote, double Maduro's.

The government-controlled election body said Maduro had won with 51.2% of the vote, while opposition leader Edmundo González had 44.2% after 80% of the vote had been counted. González, a retired diplomat, was leading Maduro by at least 20 points in independent polls.

On Monday, protesters marched through Caracas to the center of the capital and the Miraflores presidential palace. The police responded by firing tear gas in some districts. Many Venezuelans staged "cacerolazos," a traditional Latin American protest in which people bang pots and pans in anger.

🇻🇪🇻🇪🇻🇪 pic.twitter.com/u7h1QvuXJb

— Renato Esteves (@renatoesteves) July 30, 2024

Independent pollsters called Maduro's victory "unbelievable," and the governments of the United States and some other countries questioned the results of the vote and demanded a full vote count.

"Even (Maduro) does not believe in the electoral fraud that he is celebrating," said Argentine President Javier Millay.

Peru has ordered Venezuelan diplomats to leave the country within 72 hours, citing "serious and arbitrary decisions taken today by the Venezuelan regime." However, Maduro's close allies - russia, China, Iran and Cuba - welcomed his victory.

In one of the towns, protesters toppled a statue of the previous president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez.

Hugo Chávez's statue was just torn down in Venezuela. The people are rising up.pic.twitter.com/GvzyVUne9M

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 29, 2024

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in January, the Venezuelan army supported the Maduro regime, after which mass protests began in the country.

The US Department of State welcomed the official recognition by other countries of Juan Guaidó as the interim president of Venezuela.

In January 2019, the United States imposed sanctions against the Maduro regime and stopped buying oil from Venezuela.