Thousands protest in Venezuela opposing Nicolas Maduro's poll victory claims

Thousands of people, led by a top opposition figure, gathered across Venezuela on Saturday to protest the widely disputed re-election of President Nicolas Maduro, as his supporters responded to his own call for competing rallies.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado thrilled supporters in Caracas when she made a surprise appearance in a truck bearing a banner reading "Venezuela has won!" She spent much of the week in hiding after what she said was a threat by Maduro of arrest.

Machado had backed the candidacy of Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia after she herself was banned from running, and supporters say he won 67 per cent of the vote. He was not immediately seen on Saturday.

Backers cried out "Freedom!" as Machado's truck passed by.

"We have never been so strong as today," she told the crowd, adding that "the regime has never been weaker."

Adrian Pacheco, a 26-year-old shopkeeper, told news agency AFP, "Seeing her gives me hope, despite the threats. She is a light for Venezuela."

But opposition supporters were fearful, with memories still fresh of a wave of repression under the Maduro government in 2017 that left some 100 people dead.

"We have dead, wounded, detainees, missing people... People know it. They are afraid", said Katiusca Camargo, an activist in Caracas.

'MOTHER OF ALL MARCHES'

Maduro called on his supporters to turn out for "the mother of all marches" later in the afternoon. He accused the opposition of plotting attacks against security forces during their rallies.

Several thousand of his backers converged in the city centre to march to the presidential palace in the name of "national peace."

Venezuela's CNE election authority, loyal to Maduro, on Friday proclaimed him the winner with 52 per cent of the vote to 43 per cent for Gonzalez Urrutia.

But that result has been rejected by countries including the United States, Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama and Uruguay.

The opposition has launched a website with copies of 84 per cent of ballots cast, showing an easy win for Gonzalez Urrutia. The government claims these are forged.

On Saturday, the leaders of EU states France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain noted their "strong concern" and called on Venezuela to "promptly publish all voting records to ensure full transparency and integrity of the electoral process."

The 61-year-old Maduro has reacted fiercely to the international criticism, describing allegations of vote fraud as a "trap" orchestrated by Washington to justify "a coup."

Maduro has led the oil-rich, cash-poor country since 2013, presiding over a GDP drop of 80 per cent that pushed more than seven million of once-wealthy Venezuela's 30 million citizens to emigrate.

Experts blame economic mismanagement and US sanctions for the collapse.

'AFRAID'

Saturday's rallies appeared to be peaceful, a contrast to the chaotic protests that broke out following last Sunday's election.

The NGO Foro Penal reported 11 dead in protests Monday and Tuesday as angry Venezuelans took to the streets, and Machado said at least 20 people had been killed. Officials said one soldier died as well, with more than 1,000 arrests.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Machado and Gonzalez Urrutia on Friday, expressing "his concern for their safety and well-being" and congratulating Gonzalez Urrutia "for receiving the most votes," the State Department said.

Meantime, three countries that have maintained good relations with Maduro's government -- Brazil, Colombia and Mexico -- issued a joint statement urging an "impartial verification" of the result.

In Bogota's central Plaza de Bolivar, hundreds of Venezuelan emigres came together on Saturday, in song and prayer, to protest Maduro's election. Colombia is housing some three million of the seven million Venezuelans who have fled the country since he came to power.

"We don't want violence, we just want him to leave, we only want peace," 43-year-old Maudie Lopez, a crafts worker, said. "I want to return to my country."

Maduro's previous re-election, in 2018, was rejected by dozens of Latin American countries as well as the United States and European Union member states.

He enjoys loyalty from the military leadership, electoral bodies, courts and other state institutions, as well as the backing of Russia, China and Cuba.