In Coro, the capital of Falcon state, protesters cheered and danced after they tore down a statue depicting late president Hugo Chavez, Maduro’s mentor who dominated from 1999-2013.
A neighborhood monitoring group, the Venezuelan Battle Observatory, mentioned it had registered 187 protests in 20 states as of 6pm on Monday with “quite a few acts of repression and violence” carried out by paramilitary teams and safety forces.
Maduro, in a stay broadcast from the presidential palace, mentioned his forces had been conserving the peace. The armed forces have lengthy supported him and there have been no indicators generals had been breaking from the federal government.
“We’ve got been following all the acts of violence promoted by the acute proper,” Maduro mentioned.
“We have seen this film earlier than.”
DEATHS
At the very least two individuals had been killed in reference to the vote depend or protests, one within the border state of Tachira and one other in Maracay.
Maduro, a 61-year-old former union chief and overseas minister, received election after Chavez’s dying in 2013 and was re-elected in 2018. The opposition mentioned each votes had been rigged.
He has presided over an financial collapse, mass migration, and deteriorating relations with the West together with US and EU sanctions which have crippled an already struggling oil business.
His Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino warned towards permitting a repeat of the “horrible conditions of 2014, 2017 and 2019” when waves of anti-government protests led to a whole lot of deaths and didn’t dislodge Maduro.
Impartial pollsters known as the declaration of Maduro’s victory implausible, and governments in Washington and elsewhere questioned the outcomes and urged a full tabulation of votes.
“Not even (Maduro) believes the electoral rip-off he’s celebrating,” mentioned Argentina’s President Javier Milei.