Protests erupt in Caracas as Maduro claims contested third term

Thousands of residents of Caracas took to the streets to protest against the results of the presidential elections in Venezuela, according to which Nicolas Maduro won for the third consecutive time.

According to the National Electoral Commission's statement, Maduro received 51.2% of the votes, while opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, representing the largest bloc of Maduro's regime opponents, received 44.2%.

Hundreds of demonstrators, breaking through the police blockade, rode motorcycles into the government district of Caracas, where the presidential palace is located. They chanted at Maduro and his government: "It will fall, it will fall, it must fall!".

The same chants, alternated with the slogan "Freedom, freedom!" collectively chanted by crowds of youth, echoed in Petare, the expansive district of Caracas's poorest inhabitants.

Street protests against "another electoral fraud by Nicolas Maduro's government" continued all day Monday in many other districts of the Venezuelan capital.

Videos of the riots in Caracas appeared online. According to some reports, the authorities fired at the protesters. Criminals who sided with the opposition were also said to have opened fire.

The police completely blocked access to Las Mercedes, the wealthiest, elite district of the capital. When the police used tear gas, a hail of stones was thrown in their direction.

While the government announced in an official statement the third consecutive electoral victory of Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan Attorney General's Office announced an investigation into the alleged "oppositional plan to rig the elections".

Meanwhile, Maria Corina Machado, leader of the Venezuelan democratic opposition, whose pre-election polls predicted victory and who was barred from running by Maduro's regime, announced on Monday that according to credible data obtained by the opposition, Maduro's opponents received 73.2% of the vote.

The United States, Chile, Colombia, and Brazil—the first countries to express doubts about how the elections were conducted—were joined by the European Union.