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Major riots broke out in Venezuela's capital a day after President Nicolas Maduro announced he had won the election. Several thousand protesters tried to approach the presidential palace in the capital Caracas, and police and military responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.
State prosecutor Tarek Saab said a hacking attack on the electoral system was carried out by hackers in northern Macedonia. It disrupted the process of counting the votes during this weekend's presidential election and announcing them. Authorities say the attack was linked to lawyer and opposition activist Lester Toledo.
"Security forces have been joined by leftist paramilitaries who have clashed with protesters and blocked many roads around the city centre," the BBC reported.
The defence minister there, Vladimir Padrino Lopez, wrote on the social network "X" that more than 20 soldiers had been injured during the unrest in Venezuela, some with gunshot wounds.
The main airport in Caracas is operating normally for now.
The protests have also affected the federal state of La Guaira, where demonstrators tore down and burned a statue of former President Hugo Chávez in the central square.
The opposition disputed the election results and claimed that Edmundo González had won convincingly with 73% of the vote. Opinion polls before the election showed a clear victory for Gonzalez, who was backed by almost all opposition parties in a bid to oust Maduro after 11 years in power. Many opposition leaders have taken refuge in the Argentine embassy, fearing arrest.
Maduro has stressed that the opposition will not succeed in creating a political crisis in Venezuela.
"These are the people who will rule Venezuela? They want to come to power and take office? To start a civil war? Violence and fascism will not go away," President Maduro said.
The Venezuelan Government has announced that it is withdrawing diplomats from a number of Latin American countries that do not recognise the results of the presidential elections, and at the same time has demanded that these countries immediately withdraw their representatives from Venezuela. The first to react was Peru, which gave Venezuelan diplomats three days to leave the country.
Venezuela will also temporarily suspend commercial flights with Panama and the Dominican Republic in response to their alleged interference in the country's affairs. | BGNES
