More than 100 people rallied in Sydney on Saturday in the worldwide “Protest for the Truth” movement, marking one of the first demonstrations hosted internationally against an alleged election steal by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Video posted to X after the event showed members of the Venezuelan diaspora in Australia, alongside supporters, holding flags and signs reading “No to human rights violations” and “No more persecution against the people”.

A group of Venezuelans also gathered in front of Parliament House in Melbourne to raise awareness of the issue.

One demonstrator said in a video that Venezuelans faced a humanitarian crisis “not only in Venezuela but outside of Venezuela”.

Election results disputed

Venezuela’s opposition, led by Maria Corina Machado, claim their candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won the country’s presidential election in July but Mr Maduro has refused to concede.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed Mr 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 CNE says it has been unable to release the vote breakdown 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 polling station-level results show Mr Gonzalez Urrutia took more than two-thirds of the vote.

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

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

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

Protests spread worldwide

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

In response to Ms Machado’s call for a Protest for the Truth, rallies sparked up in several cities in Venezuela and internationally on Saturday — including in Australia, Spain, Belgium, Colombia, Mexico and Argentina.

In Argentina, 34-year-old Andreina Escalante said “we have faith that we will get out of the dictatorship”.

Holding her two-year-old daughter, she said her dream was to return to Venezuela after leaving more than five years ago.

Thousands protested across 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 Mr Maduro since he took office in 2013.

Opposition members appeared at rallies in Venezuela on Saturday, vowing to “fight to the end”.

“We won’t leave the streets,” Ms 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.”

Mr Gonzalez Urrutia wrote on X in support of his party leader earlier in the day.

“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 said.

“This is a criminal government that wants to hold on to power. I smell freedom, I have nothing to fear,” said Adriana Calzadilla, a demonstrator in Caracas.

Demonstrator and economist Iliana Alvarean conceded that she did “feel fear”.

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

But thousands of Mr Maduro’s supporters gathered in Caracas and other cities on Saturday.

“The Venezuelan people have suffered too many blockades, too many attacks and this new attack we are going to beat,” 46-year-old Aurimar Nieves said.

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

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

Maduro calls for opposition’s arrest

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Also on Saturday, Mr Maduro accused Mr Gonzalez Urrutia — who last appeared in public at a protest on July 30 — of trying to flee the country.

“He’s hiding in a cave. And he’s preparing his escape from Venezuela. Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia is taking the money and going to Miami,” Mr Maduro told supporters at a rally outside the Miraflores presidential palace.

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

Mr Maduro’s previous re-election in 2018 was rejected by the United States, European Union and several dozen other countries.

AFP/ABC