Venezuelan opposition vows to fight 'to the end'

Venezuela's opposition, claiming victory in presidential elections they say were stolen by strongman Nicolas Maduro, gathered in the thousands in Caracas and elsewhere on Saturday, vowing to fight "to the end."

People rallied 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 28 July 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 clamored to get as near as possible to the wildly popular politician.

Authorities later confiscated the open-top truck that Machado uses as a stage at rallies, including on Saturday, according to an X post from her Comando Con Venezuela alliance.

Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed Maduro the winner of a third six-year term until 2031, giving him 52 percent 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 National Guard officers 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."

No incidents were reported from the rallies, which took place under heavy security.