CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuela’s Opposition, claiming victory in presidential elections they say were stolen by strongman Nicolas Maduro, gathered in their thousands in Caracas and elsewhere on Saturday, vowing to fight “to the end”.

People gathered in several cities in Venezuela and as far afield as Spain, Belgium, and Australia in response to a call by Opposition Leader Maria Corina Machado to join a “Protest for the Truth”.

Machado herself came out of hiding to lead a rally in the capital, seeking to intensify pressure on Maduro to concede what she and others say was an overwhelming win for Opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia in July 28 polls.

“We won’t leave the streets,” Machado told thousands of demonstrators, many of whom waved the national flag and copies of election records from their voting stations as proof of an Opposition victory.

“Peaceful protest is our right,” she said as demonstrators chanted “Liberty! Liberty!” and clamoured to get as near as possible to the wildly popular politician.

Earlier, Machado had called on X for the anti-Maduro movement to “remain firm and united” in the face of the regime’s “lies [and] violence”.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed Maduro the winner of a third six-year term until 2031, giving him 52 per cent of votes cast but without providing a detailed breakdown of the results.

The Opposition says polling station-level results show Gonzalez Urrutia took more than two-thirds of the vote.

He had replaced Machado on the ballot after she was barred from running by institutions loyal to the regime.

“This is a criminal Government that wants to hold on to power. I smell freedom, I have nothing to fear,” demonstrator Adriana Calzadilla, a 55-year-old teacher, told AFP in Caracas, where officers of the National Guard and police were out in force.

Another, 42-year-old economist Iliana Alvarean, conceded that she did “feel fear”.

“One does not stop feeling it because of the repression. But we want him [Maduro] out. We are here to the end.”

Gonzalez Urrutia posted on X Saturday that, “We have the votes, the records, the support of the international community and Venezuelans determined to fight. It is time for an orderly transition.”

He last appeared in public at a protest on July 30.

Maduro has called for Machado and Gonzalez Urrutia to be arrested, accusing them of seeking to foment a “coup d’etat”.

Anti-Maduro protests have claimed 25 lives so far, with nearly 200 injured and more than 2,400 arrested since election day.

At one of the first overseas demonstrations to get underway Saturday, more than 100 Venezuelans in Australia rallied in Sydney, waving national flags and balloons.

“This is a strong message to our people in Venezuela. We are with you, and we want the world to listen what we are saying,” said protest organiser Rina Rivas.

Thousands more protested in various cities of Spain, host to about 280,000 of the nearly eight million Venezuelans to have fled their country as the economy collapsed on the watch of Maduro, in office since 2013.

“My family is in Venezuela and I want it to be a free country, that there be opportunities,” Darwin Linares, a 23-year-old who has been living in Europe for six years, told AFP in Madrid.

There were also opposition rallies in Belgium, Colombia, and Mexico, among others.

Maduro’s victory claim has been rejected by the United States, the European Union, and several Latin American countries.

But thousands of his supporters gathered in Caracas and other cities Saturday.

“The Venezuelan people have suffered too many blockades, too many attacks, and this new attack we are going to beat,” 46-year-old community leader Aurimar Nieves told AFP, referring to US sanctions.

Carmen Bolivar, a 63-year-old seamstress, described the Opposition’s insistence that it has irrefutable proof of victory as “pure lies”.

The CNE says it has been unable to release the results due to a “cyber terrorist attack” on its systems, though the Carter Center observer mission said there was no evidence for such a claim.

The Opposition says it has access to 80 per cent of paper ballots cast, which show that Gonzalez Urrutia won handily.

Maduro’s previous re-election in 2018 was also rejected by the United States, European Union, and several Latin American countries.

CARACAS, Venezuela — This aerial view shows thousands of people attending a protest called by the Opposition for election ‘victory’ to be recognised, in Caracas on August 17, 2024. Both President Nicolas Maduro and his rival Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, backed by Opposition Leader Maria Corina Machado, have claimed victory in July 28 polls. (Photos: AFP )