Venezuela has been engulfed in violent protests over the presidential election, which resulted in Nicolás Maduro’s third consecutive victory.
Security forces in Venezuela have fired tear gas and rubber bullets at people protesting Sunday’s disputed election result. Thousands of people descended on central Caracas on Monday night, some walking for miles from slums in the mountains surrounding the city, to the presidential palace.
The opposition has contested the announcement of Maduro’s victory as a ‘fraud’, saying its candidate Edmundo González won convincingly with 73.2% of the vote.
Opposition parties had rallied behind Mr González in a bid to oust President Maduro after 11 years in power amid widespread discontent over the country’s economic crisis.
A number of Western and Latin American countries, as well as international bodies, including the UN, have called on Venezuelan authorities to release voting data from individual polling stations.
Argentina is one country that has refused to recognize President Maduro’s election victory, and in response Venezuela has withdrawn diplomats from Buenos Aires.
