Election protests turn deadly
Opponents play blame game after seven killed, 61 injured in Venezuela
CARACAS Venezuela’s president-elect blamed the opposition Tuesday for seven deaths and 61 injuries that the government claims have occurred in disturbances protesting his election, and he accused the U.S. of organizing the unrest. Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles later accused the government of being behind the violence.
Maduro’s accusation against Washington came after the U.S. State Department said it would not recognize the results of Sunday’s unexpectedly close election without the vote-by-vote recount being demanded by Capriles.
“The (U.S.) embassy has financed and led all these violent acts,” president-elect Nicolas Maduro, the chosen heir of the late Hugo Chavez, said during a televised meeting at the headquarters of the state oil company.
Earlier, he said he would not allow an opposition protest march called for Wednesday in Caracas, saying Capriles was “responsible for the dead we are mourning” from violence during protests across the country.
Maduro then summoned his own supporters to take to the streets Wednesday in the capital, raising the possibility of a confrontation with antigovernment protesters.
But Capriles called off the planned opposition march. “Whoever goes out into the street (Wednesday) is playing the government’s game,” he said. “The government wants there to be deaths in the country.”
He said the accusation by officials that he is mounting an attempt to overthrow the socialist government is a smoke screen to divert attention from demands for a recount.
“I want to ask Mr. Maduro to calm down a bit. I think he’s sort of going crazy,” Capriles said at a news conference.
According to the regimefriendly National Electoral Council, which quickly certified Maduro’s election Monday, he defeated Capriles by 262,000 votes out of 14.9 million ballots cast. Capriles has charged that Chavistas stole the election. Outside the capital, a march to demand a recount turned violent in the capital of Barinas, the home state of Chavez. Police fired tear gas and plastic bullets at protesters heeding Capriles’s call for protests by marching on the provincial headquarters of the electoral council. Opposition leaders reported 30 arrests. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Barinas Gov. Adan Chavez is a brother of Hugo Chavez, the charismatic but divisive Venezuelan leader who succumbed to cancer March 5 after 14 years as president.
In a separate televised broadcast, Justice Minister Nestor Reverol accused Capriles of numerous crimes, including insurrection and civil disobedience. It was part of a drumbeat of attacks by government officials who have been alleging since Monday that Capriles is plotting a coup.