Chávez statues toppled across Venezuela as election protests rage on

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Anti-government activists across Venezuela are toppling giant statues of Hugo Chávez to express their anger over the alleged stealing of an election by the late president's handpicked successor, Nicolás Maduro.

In the seaside city of La Guaira, outside the capital Caracas, twisted rebar and chunks of concrete lie below a pedestal where a group of protesters Monday night ripped down one likeness of Chávez that was dedicated by Maduro in 2017.

A video provided to The Associated Press from one protester shows the moment when the 12-foot statue of the leader known as El Comandante was pulled down to raucous shouts of "this government is going to fall." Once removed, the statue was dragged by motorcycles across the plaza, doused in gasoline and set on fire, the protester said.

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"This is a powerful symbol to them," said the protester, who asked not to be identified for fear she could be arrested. "Every time we tackle one of their symbols, we're taking away some of their strength."

This isn't the first time monuments honoring the creator of the so-called Bolivarian Revolution have been attacked by angry mobs. The same phenomenon occurred during waves of anti-government unrest in 2017 and 2019.

A destroyed statue of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez lays next to its base in Valencia, Venezuela, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, the day after people protested the official election results that certified Chavez's protégé, current President Nicolás Maduro, as the winner. (AP Photo/Jacinto Oliveros)

But the simultaneous nature and high number of attacks — five in the last 24 hours — underscores the depth of anger many Venezuelans feel after the National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner in Sunday's presidential election. The opposition says its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, more than doubled the incumbent's vote count.

A plainclothes military intelligence officer stopped journalists trying to take photos of what remains of the destroyed statue in La Guaira. The officer, who didn't identify himself, said the country is "at war" and that any effort to disrespect Chávez was offensive to millions of Venezuelans who revered the former army paratrooper and anti-imperialist icon.

Maduro said several people had been arrested in the attacks, which he likened to the images from revolutions pushed by the U.S. in post-Soviet states including Ukraine and Georgia.

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"What do these people have in their head? In the heart?" Maduro asked in a televised address Monday night in which he broadcast images of some of the attacks. "Just imagine if they one day gain power here, what they would be capable of doing."