Venezuela’s President-elect Nicolas Maduro is accusing the United States of inciting all the violence that has occurred in the wake of Sunday’s contested elections.
Maduro charges that the U.S. Embassy has been “financing and leading all the violent acts.” He says the embassy is backing what he calls “neo-Nazi groups” that he claims are behind the violence.
The United States said earlier Tuesday that it was refusing to the accept the official results of Sunday’s vote without a full recount given the closeness of the result: a margin of 50.8 percent to 49 percent favoring Maduro, the chosen successor of Chavez, who succumbed to cancer last month.
In a televised broadcast, Justice Minister Nestor Reverol accused opposition candidate Henrique Capriles of numerous crimes including insurrection and civil disobedience.
Government officials have been alleging since Monday that Capriles is plotting a coup, and Maduro announced that he was prohibiting an opposition march scheduled for Wednesday in the capital.
In Chavez’s home state of Barinas, police fired tear gas and plastic bullets at protesters heeding the Capriles’ call for protests by marching on the provincial headquarters of the National Electoral Council.
Chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega said 135 people had been detained in protests. Opposition leaders reported 30 arrests Tuesday. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Capriles’ supporters also protested in cities including Merida and Maracay;.
In the capital, Caracas, Maduro said he would not permit an opposition march that Capriles called for Wednesday. His chief prosecutor, meanwhile, said seven people had been killed in protests.
Maduro blamed Capriles personally.
“You are responsible for the dead we are mourning,” he said, calling Capriles “the defeated candidate.”
Reverol said one of the dead was a man in the capital who was shot dead by opposition supporters. He said the other shooting deaths, in the states of Sucre, Tachira and Zulia, were being investigated.
The prosecutor, Ortega, said those killed were humble members of the working class.
Capriles issued a message on Twitter blaming the government that he says stole the election.
“The illegitimate one and his government ordered that there be violence to avoid counting the votes,” he said. “They are responsible!”
Maduro was certified the winner of a presidential election Monday amid questions about his ability to lead after he squandered a double-digit lead in the race despite an outpouring of sympathy for his party following Chavez’s death.
On Monday, thousands of students briefly clashed with National Guard troops who fired tear gas and plastic bullets while people across the nation banged on pots and pans to reject the National Electoral Council’s ratification of Maduro’s victory without a recount.
Late Monday, Maduro announced he had met with a newly created “anti-coup” command at the military museum that holds Chavez’s remains.
He accused opposition protesters of attacking government clinics and the house of electoral council President Tibisay Lucena, without offering details.
Government leaders and military leaders have closed ranks around Maduro despite his weak showing Sunday.
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