Venezuela opposition rejects Maduro victory claim

Venezuela's opposition coalition on Monday rejected the election victory claimed by President Nicolas Maduro and announced by a loyalist electoral authority, saying it had garnered 70 percent of the vote, not 44 percent as reported by the authority.

"We want to say to all of Venezuela and the world that Venezuela has a new president-elect and it is (candidate) Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia," opposition leader Maria Corina Machado told journalists, adding: "We won."

On the other hand, Chilean President Gabriel Boric said that the results announced by Venezuela's electoral body declaring Maduro the winner with 51.2 percent of the vote were "hard to believe."

"Maduro's regime must understand that the results it publishes are hard to believe," Boric wrote on social media platform X. He went on to demand "total transparency of the minutes and the process, and that international observers not committed to the government account for the veracity of the results," adding that Chile "will not recognize any result that is not verifiable."

Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves rejected the results declaring incumbent Nicolas Maduro the winner of Venezuela's presidential election, calling them "fraudulent."

"The government of Costa Rica rejects categorically the proclamation of Nicolas Maduro as president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which we consider fraudulent," Chaves said on X.

Peru's foreign minister Javier Gonzalez-Olaechea announced that he was recalling for consultations Lima's ambassador to Venezuela over election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro the winner.

"In light of the very serious official announcements of the Venezuelan electoral authorities, the immediate recall for consultations of the Peruvian ambassador accredited to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has been arranged," Gonzalez-Olaechea said on X.