HOUSTON — Protests occurred in several Venezuelan cities after authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro was declared a winner of the country's presidential election.
The vote was riddled with claims of irregularities. Dozens of Venezuelans in Houston also took to the streets to voice their frustrations.
"He is stealing elections. Massive fraud. We are not going to let it happen one more time," said Javier Avila.
The people who showed up in the Galleria area and Sugar Land were angry with President Maduro, who is claiming victory in Sunday’s elections.
Maduro has been in power for 11 years, after the death of his mentor Hugo Chavez and these Houstonians are in support of the opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez. They said Gonzalez has won the election by a landslide.
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"The reality is here Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia get more than 70 percent of the votes," said Jorge Marquez, another protester.
"Maduro realized he was losing the election and it shut down the counting process and then declared victory," said Rice University Political Science Professor, Mark Jones.
Jones said Maduro was quickly supported by his allies like China, Russia and Iran, making it challenging for the U.S. to step in.
"It will be tough for the U.S. to do anything then soft pressure to remove Maduro. The United States has been engaged for soft pressure to remove Maduro and Chaves for some time and hasn’t been successful," said Jones.
Jones said if Maduro's socialist government remains in power, this ultimately affects our border.
"One impact of all this is we will see more migration by Venezuelans to the US with the rest of Latin America," said Jones.
In the meantime, those taking to the streets, holding their flag high and signing chants, are not losing hope
"They want to stay in remaining power forever, people are saying no mas, no more," said Heydee Cervallos. "The nation is woken up."
Many are planning more peaceful protests in the city to raise awareness and support for their home country, which they hope will be free again.