Thousands of opposition supporters crammed the streets of Caracas on Monday, banging pots, burning trash bags and chanting "fraud" to protest the confirmation of late leader Hugo Chavez's political heir as president-elect. The demonstration erupted as the National Electoral Council (CNE) certified the victory of acting President Nicolas Maduro against his opponent Henrique Capriles, who refused to concede defeat and demanded a full recount. At one spot, police dispersed a group of protesters with tear gas. Piles of trash burned along a central boulevard and later in the evening scores of Capriles supporters sped by in motorcycles, honking their horns. "We are here because they stole our vote. They cheated us," said 60-year-old Selma Orjuela as she banged a pot. "We need Capriles to be president. That's why we voted, and we are sure we won." With the opposition planning more protests on Tuesday and Wednesday, Maduro urged his supporters to demonstrate on the same days and "combat in peace" across the nation. Maduro -- who had voiced support for an audit of the vote shortly after the results were announced -- now said that Capriles's demand for a full recount was the "whims of a bourgeois." Earlier, the CNE handed the certified results to Maduro, saying he defeated Capriles 50.75 percent to 48.97 percent -- a difference of 265,000 votes. The final gap was about 30,000 votes wider than initial results, but it was still the opposition's best result against "Chavismo" over the 14 years that the latter has dominated the nation, which sits on the world's largest oil reserves. "I am the son of Chavez," Maduro said. "I am the first Chavista president after Hugo Chavez Frias, and I will fulfill his legacy to protect the poor, to protect our independence." The 50-year-old former foreign minister accused the opposition of having a "coup mentality." "Those who would try to undo a democratic majority's will, what they are doing is carrying out, or pushing for, a coup d'etat," Maduro charged. "I am reporting that Venezuela is on the road to the preparing of an act that would disregard democratic institutions," he warned. But with the United States and the Organization of American States (OAS) backing his demand for a recount, Capriles called Maduro an "illegitimate president."
