CARACAS: Venezuelan authorities have arrested 749 people for participating in violent riots following Sunday’s presidential elections, Attorney General Tarek William Saab said Tuesday.
Those arrested face charges of “incitement, obstructing public roads, hate crimes … resisting arrest and, in the most serious cases, terrorism,” Xinhua news agency quoted the attorney general as saying at a press conference.
According to Saab, as a result of the violence, 48 military and police officers have been injured, some by gunshots and a military officer in northern Aragua state was killed.
Authorities have verified that far-right groups have been using minors and people under the influence of drugs in riots in various cities in Venezuela.
The riots, Saab said, are not protests but rather the work of “armed criminals” looking “to create chaos. They wanted … this to escalate to the national level … so there is foreign intervention.”
Venezuela held presidential elections on Sunday and the National Electoral Council on Monday declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner of the elections. — BERNAMA-XINHUA
