During his visit to Latin America, Obama said on Saturday the allegations against Tim Tracy, 35, were “ridiculous.”

But Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres insisted that intelligence agents tracking Tracy since late 2012 had uncovered ample evidence he was plotting with militant anti-government factions to destabilize Venezuela with violence.

“When you want to do intelligence work in another country, all those big powers who do this type of spying, they often use the facade of a filmmaker, documentary-maker, photographer or journalist,” he told state TV.

“Because with that facade, they can go anywhere, penetrate any place.”

Obama’s comments about Tracy, and others questioning socialist leader Nicolas Maduro’s democratic credentials after last month’s disputed presidential vote, have infuriated the government and revived accusations of “imperialist meddling.”

Late on Saturday, Maduro’s government issued a formal protest note. In a remark reminiscent of his mentor and late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez’s tirades against U.S. leaders, Maduro even labeled Obama “the grand chief of devils”.

Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver who rose to be Chavez’s foreign minister and vice-president, has alternately railed against Washington in the same terms as Chavez and fanned prospects of a rapprochement by offering dialogue.

“I think he actually wants to improve relations with the north, but because he’s vulnerable domestically right now, he needs to revive the old blood-and-thunder rhetoric to shore up support,” said a Western diplomat in Caracas.

The Tracy case is a crucial test of Maduro’s intentions towards a country that remains the main export market for the OPEC member’s oil despite years of political hostility.

Friends and family of Tracy, who was a director and producer at Los Angeles-based Freehold Productions according to his LinkedIn profile, say he became passionately interested in Venezuelan politics and had excellent relations on both sides.

Interior Minister Rodriguez, however, countered that Tracy had “disguised himself” as pro-Chavez for credibility in some circles. Some 500 videos of him, and email exchanges with opposition activists, proved he was in the midst of violent plotting with students, Rodriguez added.

“In those videos, those radical, fascist kids ask the ‘gringo’ for dollars,” he said.

U.S. diplomats have still not been able to visit Tracy in prison, where he awaits formal charges after being arrested in late April.

According to LinkedIn, he attended Georgetown University, and his work has included the “Madhouse” TV series about stock car racing for the History Channel, plus a just-finished comedy called “Angry White Man”.

(Reporting by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Visitors tip-toe around his marble sarcophagus, reprimanded by guards if their voices rise above whispers.

Outside, a shell-shocked nation is still reeling both from Chavez’s death from cancer last month and a week of violence and recriminations over the disputed election to succeed him.

Nightly protests – government supporters launch fireworks, opponents bang pots and bans – have been shaking the capital Caracas and most other major cities in the South American nation of 29 million people.

The beginning of Venezuela’s transition into the post-Chavez era could hardly have been more raucous or controversial.

The dispute over Chavez protege Nicolas Maduro’s narrow presidential vote win led to the deaths of at least eight people.

It has also deepened the near 50-50 split in a nation polarized by Chavez’s socialist policies, shown the fragility of Maduro’s grip on the “Chavismo” movement, and left a raft of fast-accruing economic and social problems on the back burner.

“If we’re at war among ourselves, everyone suffers,” said construction worker Elias Simancas, 61, sitting on a bench in a square where police clashed with masked and rock-throwing protesters during riots after last Sunday’s vote.

“We just want a country in peace,” he said, expressing an oft-repeated sentiment by the less vocal but majority voices on both sides of the country’s political conflict.

As well as longing for some quiet and normality after 14 years in the global spotlight under Chavez, Venezuelans also want plenty more tangible things on their street corners.

First on their wish list is an end to murders, kidnappings and violent robberies that rival the world’s worst crime spots and leave many Venezuelan towns and cities eerily quiet at night.

Beyond that, most Venezuelans of all political creeds want an end to runaway price rises, shortages of basic products, power cuts, potholes, cronyism in politics, and the insulting rhetoric between politically divided neighbors and families.

“I’m sick of it. I want out. How can I bring up kids in this country?” said Manuel Pereira, a 39-year-old businessman who has seen his electronics importing company collapse due to lack of access to foreign currency under government controls.

Debating Venezuela’s future with middle-class friends on Saturday morning as their children held weekend soccer training – instead of a local league match, canceled due to the unrest – he said he was going to use his Spanish roots to try and emigrate this year.

CHAVEZ’S SHOES IMPOSSIBLE TO FILL

Just as during Chavez’s two-year battle with cancer, his re-election last year, and his death on March 5, ideological disputes rather than grassroots issues fill the headlines and dominate government and opposition agendas.

Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles’ decision to contest Maduro’s election victory – by less than 2 percent, or 265,000 of nearly 15 million votes – uncorked passions and resentments built up during Chavez’s rule.

The day after the election, Venezuela teetered on the edge of all-out crisis as pro-opposition hard-liners took to the streets in protests that turned violent and, according to the government, killed eight and injured many more.

Capriles publicly distanced himself from the bloodshed – blaming government instigators for the violence and accusing officials of exaggerating and exploiting the trouble – and called off a march in Caracas that may have turned violent.

The election board then agreed to audit the result, helping to take more heat out of the immediate situation.

Longer-term, the political standoff remains unresolved.

Though safely sworn-in, endorsed by his peers in South America and very unlikely to see his win overturned by the audit, Maduro cannot hide from some obvious conclusions after the vote.

Clearly he failed to replicate Chavez’s popularity despite presenting himself as his devoted “son” and deploying much of the state apparatus at his service for an emotion-charged election just five weeks after Chavez’s death.

Lacking the charisma and iron grip of his mentor, and with a weaker mandate at the polls, Maduro may now struggle to keep the ruling Socialist Party together given its competing interests and factions ranging from socialist ideologues to military chiefs and businessmen.

There have already been a handful of calls from within the movement for a period of soul-searching and for improving social services to win back the more than half-a-million ‘Chavistas’ who defected to Capriles during the election campaign.

“Let what needs correcting be corrected and what needs rectifying be rectified,” said Foreign Minister Elias Jaua.

Furthermore, though Maduro condemns his opponents as “fascists” and “ultra-right,” almost half of Venezuelans voted against him and question his legitimacy given opposition leaders’ claims of thousands of irregularities on polling day.

Many Venezuelans are deeply frustrated that their OPEC nation is not doing better economically despite being rich in natural resources from abundant rivers for hydropower to the world’s largest oil reserves.

OPPOSITION WAITING GAME

Opposition supporters are downhearted at having come so close to the prize but just missed out.

The Democratic Unity coalition is also a disparate and fragile mix of right- and left-wing parties and competing egos.

Capriles’ surprisingly strong showing – most opinion polls before the vote had left him for dead – has cemented his standing as the undisputed opposition flag bearer and reduced the probability of what many had anticipated would be an opposition implosion after a comfortable Maduro win.

But Capriles faces public vilification by Maduro, possible legal charges against him over the violence, and a potential move to debar him from the governorship of Miranda state, where he is serving a second four-year term.

“They should get rid of him and find a proper democrat to run the opposition,” said Andrea Lopez, a government supporter in Caracas’ largest slum, Petare, saying Capriles should be put behind bars for the week’s events.

“Some of my ‘Chavista’ neighbors even voted for him. They were deceived by his lies. Now they have seen the wolf in sheep’s clothes. If he had won, we would have lost everything,” she added, listing the health, education and other welfare projects that sprung up in her neighborhood under Chavez.

With Maduro in a tricky situation and the economy slowing, Capriles will likely look to consolidate an image as Venezuela’s president-in-waiting.

“This is unfolding chapter by chapter,” Capriles said. “The whole system is collapsing. It is a castle built on sand.”

The awkward economic backdrop adds to Maduro’s challenges, especially if the gloom-and-doom predictions of most Wall Street and private analysts are to be believed.

They see economic growth slowing from 5.6 percent in 2012 to perhaps half of that or even lower this year, inflation heading for 30 percent, bottlenecks in dollar supply for businesses, and shortages of basics from flour and sugar to medicine and tampons.

“Time is on the opposition’s side as the economic and likely also political dynamics may contribute to weaken the government,” said Goldman Sachs analyst Alberto Ramos.

He predicts just 2.2 percent growth in 2013 and a minimum 25-percent currency devaluation in 2014 or earlier.

Balancing that, economic naysayers have exaggerated Venezuela’s economic woes in the past, and the billions keep pouring in from the nation’s oil production.

All the signs so far are that Maduro will stay faithful to Chavez’s economic policies, including costly fiscal strategies to maintain and expand the social welfare “missions” that were the cornerstone of his late boss’s popularity.

In the immediate aftermath of Chavez’s death, Maduro, a burly former bus driver who became foreign minister, was seen in many quarters as an affable and experienced diplomat who could be a potential reformer and bridge-builder.

There was talk of possible free-market economic tweaking, rapprochement with the United States, dialogue with the opposition and amnesty for political prisoners.

But his need to imitate Chavez’s rhetoric during the campaign, then the post-election dispute, have seen him looking every bit the hard-liner in public.

That may be exacerbated by his dependence on the support of tough-talking National Assembly head Diosdado Cabello, the country’s second most powerful official, who had been seen as a candidate for the top job before Chavez gave his blessing to Maduro.

Cabello showed his teeth last week, banning opposition legislators from speaking unless they recognized Maduro’s win.

“Capriles wants chaos,” said Cabello, a former military comrade of Chavez who keeps strong ties with the security forces and is seen as the muscle in government behind Maduro.

“But we’re not idiots! There is no weakness. We swear to defend Chavez’s legacy.” (Additional reporting by Girish Gupta, Deisy Buitrago, Mario Naranjo, Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Kieran Murray and Xavier Briand)

Visitors tip-toe around his marble sarcophagus, reprimanded by guards if their voices rise above whispers.

Outside, a shell-shocked nation is still reeling both from Chavez’s death from cancer last month and a week of violence and recriminations over the disputed election to succeed him.

Nightly protests – government supporters launch fireworks, opponents bang pots and bans – have been shaking the capital Caracas and most other major cities in the South American nation of 29 million people.

The beginning of Venezuela’s transition into the post-Chavez era could hardly have been more raucous or controversial.

The dispute over Chavez protégé Nicolas Maduro’s narrow presidential vote win led to the deaths of at least eight people.

It has also deepened the near 50-50 split in a nation polarized by Chavez’s socialist policies, shown the fragility of Maduro’s grip on the “Chavismo” movement, and left a raft of fast-accruing economic and social problems on the back burner.

“If we’re at war among ourselves, everyone suffers,” said construction worker Elias Simancas, 61, sitting on a bench in a square where police clashed with masked and rock-throwing protesters during riots after last Sunday’s vote.

“We just want a country in peace,” he said, expressing an oft-repeated sentiment by the less vocal but majority voices on both sides of the country’s political conflict.

As well as longing for some quiet and normality after 14 years in the global spotlight under Chavez, Venezuelans also want plenty more tangible things on their street corners.

First on their wish list is an end to murders, kidnappings and violent robberies that rival the world’s worst crime spots and leave many Venezuelan towns and cities eerily quiet at night.

Beyond that, most Venezuelans of all political creeds want an end to runaway price rises, shortages of basic products, power cuts, potholes, cronyism in politics, and the insulting rhetoric between politically divided neighbors and families.

“I’m sick of it. I want out. How can I bring up kids in this country?” said Manuel Pereira, a 39-year-old businessman who has seen his electronics importing company collapse due to lack of access to foreign currency under government controls.

Debating Venezuela’s future with middle-class friends on Saturday morning as their children held weekend soccer training – instead of a local league match, canceled due to the unrest – he said he was going to use his Spanish roots to try and emigrate this year.

CHAVEZ’S SHOES IMPOSSIBLE TO FILL

Just as during Chavez’s two-year battle with cancer, his re-election last year, and his death on March 5, ideological disputes rather than grassroots issues fill the headlines and dominate government and opposition agendas.

Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles’ decision to contest Maduro’s election victory – by less than 2 percent, or 265,000 of nearly 15 million votes – uncorked passions and resentments built up during Chavez’s rule.

The day after the election, Venezuela teetered on the edge of all-out crisis as pro-opposition hard-liners took to the streets in protests that turned violent and, according to the government, killed eight and injured many more.

Capriles publicly distanced himself from the bloodshed – blaming government instigators for the violence and accusing officials of exaggerating and exploiting the trouble – and called off a march in Caracas that may have turned violent.

The election board then agreed to audit the result, helping to take more heat out of the immediate situation.

Longer-term, the political standoff remains unresolved.

Though safely sworn-in, endorsed by his peers in South America and very unlikely to see his win overturned by the audit, Maduro cannot hide from some obvious conclusions after the vote.

Clearly he failed to replicate Chavez’s popularity despite presenting himself as his devoted “son” and deploying much of the state apparatus at his service for an emotion-charged election just five weeks after Chavez’s death.

Lacking the charisma and iron grip of his mentor, and with a weaker mandate at the polls, Maduro may now struggle to keep the ruling Socialist Party together given its competing interests and factions ranging from socialist ideologues to military chiefs and businessmen.

There have already been a handful of calls from within the movement for a period of soul-searching and for improving social services to win back the more than half-a-million ‘Chavistas’ who defected to Capriles during the election campaign.

“Let what needs correcting be corrected and what needs rectifying be rectified,” said Foreign Minister Elias Jaua.

Furthermore, though Maduro condemns his opponents as “fascists” and “ultra-right,” almost half of Venezuelans voted against him and question his legitimacy given opposition leaders’ claims of thousands of irregularities on polling day.

Many Venezuelans are deeply frustrated that their OPEC nation is not doing better economically despite being rich in natural resources from abundant rivers for hydropower to the world’s largest oil reserves.

OPPOSITION WAITING GAME

Opposition supporters are downhearted at having come so close to the prize but just missed out.

The Democratic Unity coalition is also a disparate and fragile mix of right- and left-wing parties and competing egos.

Capriles’ surprisingly strong showing – most opinion polls before the vote had left him for dead – has cemented his standing as the undisputed opposition flag bearer and reduced the probability of what many had anticipated would be an opposition implosion after a comfortable Maduro win.

But Capriles faces public vilification by Maduro, possible legal charges against him over the violence, and a potential move to debar him from the governorship of Miranda state, where he is serving a second four-year term.

“They should get rid of him and find a proper democrat to run the opposition,” said Andrea Lopez, a government supporter in Caracas’ largest slum, Petare, saying Capriles should be put behind bars for the week’s events.

“Some of my ‘Chavista’ neighbors even voted for him. They were deceived by his lies. Now they have seen the wolf in sheep’s clothes. If he had won, we would have lost everything,” she added, listing the health, education and other welfare projects that sprung up in her neighborhood under Chavez.

With Maduro in a tricky situation and the economy slowing, Capriles will likely look to consolidate an image as Venezuela’s president-in-waiting.

“This is unfolding chapter by chapter,” Capriles said. “The whole system is collapsing. It is a castle built on sand.”

The awkward economic backdrop adds to Maduro’s challenges, especially if the gloom-and-doom predictions of most Wall Street and private analysts are to be believed.

They see economic growth slowing from 5.6 percent in 2012 to perhaps half of that or even lower this year, inflation heading for 30 percent, bottlenecks in dollar supply for businesses, and shortages of basics from flour and sugar to medicine and tampons.

“Time is on the opposition’s side as the economic and likely also political dynamics may contribute to weaken the government,” said Goldman Sachs analyst Alberto Ramos.

He predicts just 2.2 percent growth in 2013 and a minimum 25-percent currency devaluation in 2014 or earlier.

Balancing that, economic naysayers have exaggerated Venezuela’s economic woes in the past, and the billions keep pouring in from the nation’s oil production.

All the signs so far are that Maduro will stay faithful to Chavez’s economic policies, including costly fiscal strategies to maintain and expand the social welfare “missions” that were the cornerstone of his late boss’s popularity.

In the immediate aftermath of Chavez’s death, Maduro, a burly former bus driver who became foreign minister, was seen in many quarters as an affable and experienced diplomat who could be a potential reformer and bridge-builder.

There was talk of possible free-market economic tweaking, rapprochement with the United States, dialogue with the opposition and amnesty for political prisoners.

But his need to imitate Chavez’s rhetoric during the campaign, then the post-election dispute, have seen him looking every bit the hard-liner in public.

That may be exacerbated by his dependence on the support of tough-talking National Assembly head Diosdado Cabello, the country’s second most powerful official, who had been seen as a candidate for the top job before Chavez gave his blessing to Maduro.

Cabello showed his teeth last week, banning opposition legislators from speaking unless they recognized Maduro’s win.

“Capriles wants chaos,” said Cabello, a former military comrade of Chavez who keeps strong ties with the security forces and is seen as the muscle in government behind Maduro.

“But we’re not idiots! There is no weakness. We swear to defend Chavez’s legacy.”

(Additional reporting by Girish Gupta, Deisy Buitrago, Mario Naranjo, Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Kieran Murray and Xavier Briand)

The narrow victory by Maduro in Sunday’s presidential vote has been rejected by his rival, Henrique Capriles, who is alleging thousands of irregularities at polling centers and wants a full audit of the ballots.

Eight people have died in opposition-led protests and the government has vowed legal action against Capriles and others whom they accuse of stirring up violence against its backers.

Washington said it had not decided whether to recognize Maduro, a former bus driver-turned-foreign minister who was picked as successor by the late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

“We think there ought to be a recount,” Secretary of State John Kerry told U.S. lawmakers. “Obviously, if there are huge irregularities, we are going to have serious questions about the viability of that government … I’m not sure that’s over yet.”

Maduro responded by accusing Washington of directly supporting the Venezuelan right-wing “like never before” in a war against the people and Chavez’s revolution.

“The U.S. intervention in Venezuelan internal affairs in recent months, and particularly during the election campaign, has been brutal, vulgar,” he said in a televised speech.

“Its direct coordination with the ‘yellow bourgeois’, with the oligarchs, has been truly obscene … Take your eyes off Venezuela, John Kerry! Get out of here!”

During Chavez’s 14-year tenure, Venezuela was the U.S. government’s main irritant in Latin America and the former soldier frequently invoked “imperialist” plots against him.

The latest instability in the OPEC nation with the world’s largest oil reserves has sent Venezuelan bond prices tumbling.

The unrest, just weeks after Chavez’s death from cancer, has laid bare the deep polarization of a country split down the middle between pro- and anti-government factions, and left its 29 million people on edge.

Several South American presidents will hold an emergency meeting on Thursday in Peru to discuss the situation. It was not clear if it would produce a show of support for Maduro, or whether the leaders wanted to call for calm.

Capriles has accused the government of ordering gangs to attack his supporters and even his official residence in Miranda state, where he is the governor.

Dozens of government supporters gathered peacefully outside the building on Wednesday, chanting “Capriles is a murderer!” and “Fascist!” while being watched by troops.

Though demanding legal action against his opposition rival, Maduro nevertheless said he would be protected by the state.

OPPOSITION MARCH OFF

Capriles had planned to lead a march on the National Electoral Council (CNE) headquarters in Caracas on Wednesday, but Maduro banned it. Capriles later called it off, saying the government had plotted to start trouble and then blame him.

“Whoever is involved in violence is not part of this project, is not with me,” he said. “It is doing me harm.”

Instead of the rally, opposition officials filed papers with the CNE formally requesting a recount.

Monday’s scenes of opposition supporters attacking ruling Socialist Party offices, government-run clinics and people celebrating Maduro’s victory were damaging to Capriles’ cause, which he casts as one of democracy versus autocracy.

Both sides have accused the other of supplying gangs of armed thugs with shirts in each other’s party colors and orders to attack people and destroy property – seeking to ensure that their political rivals got the blame.

Evoking the emotive memory of a 2002 putsch against Chavez, which lasted only 48 hours but led to a radicalization of the government and a discrediting of Venezuela’s opposition, Maduro has accused Capriles’ camp of planning another coup d’etat.

About 135 people were arrested and more than 60 hurt during Monday’s clashes, officials said. Tuesday’s protests were much quieter, with thousands of Capriles’ followers holding peaceful rallies outside CNE offices around the country.

The most successful and charismatic leader the opposition has had since Chavez took office in 1999, the 40-year-old Capriles says the government is responsible for the violence because it denied reasonable requests for a full recount.

Maduro won with 50.8 percent of the vote against Capriles’ 49.0 percent, according to the electoral authority. He is due to be formally sworn in on Friday.

Maduro campaigned on a pledge to continue Chavez’s policies. He had a big lead in polls but that evaporated in the final days and the result was much closer than his team expected.

They have defended the legitimacy of his narrow win with repeated references to the 2000 U.S. election dispute, when the U.S. Supreme Court halted a recount in Florida and George W. Bush was declared the winner in the state by just 537 votes.

Capriles says he is sure he won and that his team has evidence of 3,200 irregularities, from voters using fake IDs to intimidation of volunteers at polling centers. Opposition sources say their count showed Capriles had an extra 300,000 to 400,000 votes not shown in the official tally.

The CNE has refused to hold a recount, saying an audit of ballots from 54 percent of the polling centers, in a widely respected electronic voting system, had already been done.

Maduro initially said he was open to a recount but has changed his position. He has called on his supporters to demonstrate all week, culminating in a big rally in Caracas on Friday to coincide with his inauguration ceremony.

Maduro’s narrow victory has raised doubts about whether the disparate alliance that formed around Chavez can hold together without him. The opposition is also a wide-ranging coalition of parties from right to left on the political spectrum.

(Additional reporting by Mario Naranjo, Girish Gupta and Eyanir Chinea in Caracas, Girish Gupta in Los Teques, Paul Eckert in Washington; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Jim Loney)

Supporters of opposition leader Henrique Capriles bang pots
and pans in a traditional form of protest used in some Latin
American nations in times of political crisis.

“Let’s show our anger with pots, not with our Venezuelan
brothers,” said Capriles, urging his followers to stay peaceful
as they demand a recount of a vote that gave a narrow win to
Nicolas Maduro, protege of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

On the other side, government supporters launch fireworks
into the night sky to try and drown out the “cacerolazo,” as the
opposition protest is known for the Spanish word for stew pot.

At the designated time, Maduro backers also play recordings
of Chavez singing nationalistic anthems at full volume, and
songs by the revolutionary folk singer Ali Primera.

“Music, lots of music, and fireworks into the sky at 8
p.m.,” Maduro said in a speech. “If they are calling for a
‘cacerolazo’ of hate and intolerance, then we call for a great
Bolivarian fireworks party.”

Maduro, who like his mentor Chavez takes inspiration from
Venezuela’s independence hero Simon Bolivar, says opposition
leaders are planning a coup against him.

Election authorities gave him a slim victory with 50.8
percent of votes in Sunday’s ballot, against Capriles’ 49.0
percent. Maduro is to be sworn in on Friday.

The nightly noise, which rocks Caracas and other cities for
half an hour or more, symbolizes the bitter division of the
nation of 29 million that became deeply polarized under Chavez.

As well as banging pots or launching fireworks, residents
also scream insults into the night from apartment windows, and
honk car horns in the street.

The raucous, competing demonstrations recall the most
turbulent times of Venezuela’s recent history, including the
months before a 2002 putsch against Chavez when the city shook
with noise every time he took to the airwaves.

Chavez died last month of cancer, and had named Maduro as
his preferred heir.

(Editing by Daniel Wallis and Doina Chiacu)

The razor-thin victory by Maduro in Sunday’s presidential vote has been rejected by his rival, Henrique Capriles, who is alleging thousands of irregularities at polling centers and wants a full audit of the ballots.

Seven people have died in opposition-led protests, and the government has vowed to take legal action against the opposition leader and others whom they accuse of stirring up violence.

Washington said it had not decided whether to recognize Maduro, a former bus driver-turned-foreign minister who was picked as successor by the late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

“We think there ought to be a recount,” Secretary of State John Kerry told U.S. lawmakers. “Obviously, if there are huge irregularities, we are going to have serious questions about the viability of that government … I’m not sure that’s over yet.”

There was no immediate response from Maduro’s administration, but on Tuesday a senior ‘Chavista’ official, Diosdado Cabello, had cautioned the United States to “hold its tongue” and not meddle in Venezuelan affairs.

During Chavez’s 14-year tenure, Venezuela was the U.S. government’s main irritant in Latin America and the former soldier frequently invoked “imperialist” plots against him.

The latest instability in the OPEC nation with the world’s largest oil reserves has sent Venezuelan bond prices tumbling.

The unrest, just weeks after Chavez’s death from cancer, has laid bare the deep polarization of a nation split down the middle between pro- and anti-government factions, and left its 29 million people on edge.

Overnight, Capriles alleged that the government had ordered gangs to attack his supporters and even his official residence in Miranda state, where he is the governor.

“Anything that happens to me in the official residence at Los Teques is responsibility of Nicolas Maduro!” he said.

Though demanding legal action against Capriles and calling him a fascist, Maduro nevertheless said he would be protected.

“I am a man of peace and of my word. I ordered (state intelligence agency) Sebin to maintain protection of the ex-candidate of the right wing even though he has got rid of those who were protecting him,” he said via Twitter.

Another prominent opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, said there was a plan to arrest him on charges of destabilization. Officials did not immediately respond to that.

OPPOSITION MARCH OFF

Capriles had planned to lead a protest march on the National Electoral Council on Wednesday, but Maduro banned it. The opposition leader later called it off, saying the government had plotted to start trouble and blame it on him.

“To all my followers … this is a peaceful quarrel. Whoever is involved in violence is not part of this project, is not with me,” he said. “It is doing me harm.”

Monday’s scenes of opposition supporters attacking ruling Socialist Party offices, government-run clinics and people celebrating Maduro’s victory were damaging to Capriles’ cause, which he casts as one of democracy versus autocracy.

Evoking the emotive memory of a 2002 putsch against Chavez, which lasted only 48 hours but led to a radicalization of the government and a discrediting of Venezuela’s opposition, Maduro has accused Capriles’ camp of planning a coup d’etat.

About 135 people were arrested and more than 60 hurt during Monday’s violent clashes, including one woman whom a mob tried to burn alive, officials said. Protests were much quieter on Tuesday, with thousands of Capriles’ followers holding peaceful rallies outside Electoral Council offices around the country.

The most successful and charismatic leader the opposition has had since Chavez took office in 1999, Capriles, 40, says the government is responsible for the violence because it denied reasonable requests for a full recount.

Maduro won with 50.8 percent of the vote against Capriles’ 49.0 percent, according to the electoral authority.

He is due to be formally sworn in on Friday.

Maduro campaigned for election on a promise to continue his late boss’s hardline socialist policies. He had a big lead in polls but that evaporated in the final days and the result was much closer than his team had expected.

Capriles says he is sure he won the election and that his team has evidence of 3,200 irregularities, from voters using fake IDs to intimidation of volunteers at polling centers. Opposition sources say their count showed Capriles had an extra 300,000 to 400,000 votes not shown in the official tally.

The electoral council has refused to hold a recount, saying an audit of ballots from 54 percent of the polling centers, in a widely respected electronic voting system, had already been done.

Maduro initially said he was open to a recount but has changed his position. He has called on his supporters to demonstrate all week, culminating in a big rally in Caracas on Friday to coincide with his inauguration ceremony.

He jumped on Capriles’ cancellation of Wednesday’s march, saying the opposition leader had started to backpedal.

“No matter how much they retreat, they’ll have to face justice sooner rather than later,” Maduro said, turning on Capriles. “You are responsible for this. Don’t disguise yourself as a pacifist.”

In a session of Congress late on Tuesday, ‘Chavista’ legislators accused Capriles of inciting bloodshed and called for him to face a formal investigation and charges.

Two opposition lawmakers said they were insulted and punched by pro-government legislators.

Maduro’s slight margin of victory has raised doubts about whether the disparate alliance that formed around Chavez during his 14 years in power can hold together without him. The opposition is also a wide-ranging coalition of parties from right to left on the political spectrum.

(Additional reporting by Enrique Andres Pretel, Eyanir Chinea and Mario Naranjo; Paul Eckert in Washington; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Maduro’s razor-thin victory in a presidential vote has not been recognized by Henrique Capriles, who is demanding a recount and alleging thousands of irregularities at poll stations.

Seven people have died in opposition-led protests, and the government has vowed legal action against Capriles and others whom they accuse of stirring up violence.

Instability in the OPEC nation with the world’s largest oil reserves has sent Venezuelan bond prices tumbling.

The unrest, just weeks after the death of former socialist leader Hugo Chavez, has laid bare the deep polarization of a nation split down the middle between pro- and anti-government factions, and left its 29 million people on edge.

Overnight, Capriles alleged that the government had ordered gangs to attack his supporters and even his official residence in Miranda state, where he is the governor.

“Anything that happens to me in the official residence at Los Teques is responsibility of Nicolas Maduro!” he said.

Though demanding legal action against Capriles and calling him a fascist, Maduro nevertheless said he would be protected.

“I am a man of peace and of my word. I ordered (state intelligence agency) Sebin to maintain protection of the ex-candidate of the right wing even though he has got rid of those who were protecting him,” he said via Twitter.

Another prominent opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, said there was a plan to arrest him on charges of destabilization. Officials did not immediately respond to that.

OPPOSITION MARCH OFF

Capriles had planned to lead a protest march on the National Electoral Council on Wednesday, but Maduro banned it. The opposition leader later called it off, saying the government had plotted to start trouble and blame it on him.

“To all my followers … this is a peaceful quarrel. Whoever is involved in violence is not part of this project, is not with me,” he said. “It is doing me harm.”

Monday’s scenes of opposition supporters attacking ruling Socialist Party offices, government-run clinics and people celebrating Maduro’s victory were damaging to Capriles’ cause, which he casts as one of democracy versus autocracy.

Evoking the emotive memory of a 2002 putsch against Chavez, which lasted only 48 hours but led to a radicalization of the government and a discrediting of Venezuela’s opposition, Maduro has accused Capriles’ camp of planning a coup d’etat.

About 135 people were arrested and more than 60 hurt during Monday’s violent clashes, including one woman whom a mob tried to burn alive, officials said. Protests were much quieter on Tuesday, with thousands of Capriles’ followers holding peaceful rallies outside Electoral Council offices around the country.

The most successful and charismatic leader the opposition has had since Chavez took office in 1999, Capriles, 40, says the government is responsible for the violence because it denied reasonable requests for a full recount.

Maduro won with 50.8 percent of the vote against Capriles’ 49.0 percent, according to the electoral authority.

He is due to be formally sworn in on Friday.

Maduro campaigned for election on a promise to continue his late boss’s hardline socialist policies. He had a big lead in polls but that evaporated in the final days and the result was much closer than his team had expected.

Capriles says he is sure he won the election and that his team has evidence of 3,200 irregularities, from voters using fake IDs to intimidation of volunteers at polling centers. Opposition sources say their count showed Capriles had an extra 300,000 to 400,000 votes not shown in the official tally.

The electoral council has refused to hold a recount, saying an audit of ballots from 54 percent of the polling centers, in a widely respected electronic voting system, had already been done.

Maduro initially said he was open to a recount but has changed his position. He has called on his supporters to demonstrate all week, culminating in a big rally in Caracas on Friday to coincide with his inauguration ceremony.

He jumped on Capriles’ cancellation of Wednesday’s march, saying the opposition leader had started to backpedal.

“No matter how much they retreat, they’ll have to face justice sooner rather than later,” Maduro said, turning on Capriles. “You are responsible for this. Don’t disguise yourself as a pacifist.”

In a session of Congress late on Tuesday, ‘Chavista’ legislators accused Capriles of inciting bloodshed and called for him to face a formal investigation and charges.

Two opposition lawmakers said they were insulted and punched by pro-government legislators.

Maduro’s slight margin of victory has raised doubts about whether the disparate alliance that formed around Chavez during his 14 years in power can hold together without him. The opposition is also a wide-ranging coalition of parties from right to left on the political spectrum.

(Reporting by Daniel Wallis and Enrique Andres Pretel; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Doina Chiacu)

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles has demanded a full
recount of votes from Sunday’s election after official results
showed a narrow victory for Maduro, who is late socialist
President Hugo Chavez’s hand-picked successor.

The deaths happened on Monday when protesters flooded parts
of the capital Caracas and cities in the interior, blocking
streets, burning tires and fighting with security forces.

They included two people shot by opposition sympathizers
while celebrating Maduro’s victory in a middle-class area of the
capital and one person killed in an attack on a government-run
clinic, authorities said.

Officials also said 61 people were injured, including one
woman whom protesters tried to burn alive.

Authorities have arrested 135 people.

“This is the responsibility of those who have called for
violence, who have ignored the constitution and the
institutions,” a furious Maduro said in a speech to the nation
on Tuesday. “Their plan is a coup d’etat.”

The opposition did not respond to specific allegations
relating to the deaths, but Capriles has repeatedly called for
only peaceful demonstrations and said that the government was
responsible for violence by denying its call for an recount.

INSTABILITY

The prospect of prolonged instability in the OPEC nation
with the world’s largest oil reserves has unnerved markets.

Venezuela’s volatile and highly-traded debt has tumbled on
the dispute and unrest, with the benchmark 2027 bond
off more than 3.0 percent on Tuesday.

A continuation of violent protests, despite Capriles’
entreaties, could be damaging for the opposition.

Maduro has played up attacks by rock-throwing protesters on
popular government programs such as clinics staffed by Cuban
doctors and subsidized state-run supermarkets, saying they prove
Capriles wants to scrap Chavez-era social welfare programs.

That accusation was a principal plank of Maduro’s campaign.

State TV has played images of burning buildings and masked
demonstrators, along with footage of a failed 2002 coup that
briefly ousted Chavez but led many Venezuelans to question the
opposition’s democratic credentials.

Chavez was toppled from power for 48 hours then, but bounced
back quickly, purged critics inside the armed forces and stepped
up the pace of his socialist policies.

Maduro said he will not allow a big opposition march planned
for Wednesday in Caracas to demand a vote recount, which could
lead to further clashes if the opposition goes ahead anyway.

“It’s time for a firm hand in the face of this fascism and
intolerance,” he said.

The election was triggered by the death of Chavez last month
after a two-year battle with cancer. He named Maduro as his
successor before he died and his protege won the election with
50.8 percent of the vote against Capriles’ 49.0 percent.

Maduro, who had initially said he was open to a recount,
called on his supporters to demonstrate all week. The National
Electoral Council (CNE) has refused to conduct a recount.

The electoral authority’s results showed him winning by
265,000 votes, but opposition sources said their count showed
Capriles had received an additional 300,000 to 400,000 votes
that had been unaccounted for in the official tally.

Capriles team said it has evidence of 3,200 irregularities,
from voters using fake IDs to intimidation of volunteers at
polling centers. It wants an exhaustive review of paper ballots.

“We are not going to ignore the will of the people. We
believe we won … we want this problem resolved peacefully,”
Capriles told a news conference.

“There is no majority here, there are two halves.”

The CNE said an audit of 54 percent of the voting stations,
in a widely respected electronic vote system, had already been
carried out.

The U.S. State Department, which had previously urged a full
audit, questioned the CNE’s refusal to accommodate Capriles.

“The CNE’s decision to declare Mr. Maduro the victor before
completing a full recount is difficult to understand. And they
did not explain their haste in taking this decision,” said State
Department deputy spokesman Patrick Ventell.

OPPOSITION RISKS

Capriles’s strategy could backfire if demonstrations turn
into prolonged disturbances, such as those the opposition led
between 2002 and 2004, which sometimes blocked roads for days
with trash and burning tires, annoying many Venezuelans.

Senior government figures have raised the possibility of
legal action against Capriles, the governor of Miranda state,
for inciting the violence.

Rallies around the country, from supporters of both sides,
went ahead on Tuesday largely without any problems.

“We’re here because we know we won and there was fraud,”
said Dairy Garces, 29, at an opposition demonstration of some
3,000 people near the CNE office in the western city of Coro.

“This is a fight for a better future for our children.”

A day earlier, demonstrators in an upscale district of
Caracas, some wearing T-shirts wrapped around their faces, had
thrown sticks and stones at ranks of riot police.

The controversy over Venezuela’s first presidential election
without Chavez on the ballot in two decades raised doubts about
the future of “Chavismo” – the late leader’s self-proclaimed
socialist movement – without its towering and mercurial founder.

Chavez named Maduro as his heir in an emotional last public
speech to the nation before his death, giving the former foreign
minister and vice president a huge boost ahead of the vote.

Maduro’s slight margin of victory raises the possibility he
could face future challenges from within the leftist coalition
that united around Chavez, who won four presidential elections.

At his last election in October, the former soldier beat
Capriles by 11 percentage points even though his battle against
cancer had severely restricted his ability to campaign.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Wallis, Eyanir Chinea, Diego
Ore and Girish Gupta in Caracas; Sailu Urribarri in Paraguana;
Javier Farias in Tachira; Paul Eckert in Washington; Editing by
Kieran Murray, Jackie Frank and Paul Simao)

The deaths occurred when hundreds of protesters took to the
streets in various parts of the capital, Caracas, and in other
cities on Monday, blocking streets, burning tires and clashing
with security forces, in some cases.

The AVN news agency said two people were killed in Miranda
state, which includes part of Caracas, one in Tachira state on
the border with Colombia, and another in western Zulia state. It
gave no further details.

In one of the confrontations, police fired tear gas and
rubber bullets in a running battle with masked, rock-wielding
opposition supporters in a wealthy district of Caracas.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles is demanding a recount
of the votes from Sunday’s election after official results
showed a narrow victory for ruling party candidate Nicolas
Maduro, the acting president.

Capriles said his team’s figures show that he won the
election and he has called his supporters into the streets for
peaceful demonstrations.

The National Electoral Council refused to hold a full
recount, saying a 54 percent audit of the widely respected
electronic vote system had already been carried out.

The election was triggered by the death of socialist leader
Hugo Chavez last month after a two-year battle with cancer. He
named Maduro as his successor before he died and his protege won
the election with 50.8 percent of the vote against Capriles’
49.0 percent.

Both sides have urged their supporters to hold peaceful
demonstrations nationwide on Tuesday, raising fears of more
unrest in the oil-exporting nation of 29 million people, which
has seen plenty of political turbulence in the last few decades.

“Imagine if I went crazy and called the people and armed
forces onto the street? What would happen in this country? How
many millions would pour onto the street?” Maduro said late on
Monday, blaming Capriles for the violence.

“We’re not going to do it. This country needs peace. Where
are the opposition politicians who believe in democracy?”

The unrest in Caracas included demonstrations outside the
offices of state television channel VTV and the home of the head
of the election authority.

Capriles, the governor of Miranda state, hopes to highlight
the weakness of Maduro’s mandate and stir up opposition anger
over his charge that the electoral council is biased in favor of
the ruling Socialist Party.

The strategy could backfire if demonstrations turn into
prolonged disturbances, such as those the opposition led between
2002 and 2004, which sometimes blocked roads for days with trash
and burning tires and annoyed many Venezuelans.

A return to prolonged trouble in the streets could renew
questions about the opposition’s democratic credentials on the
heels of their best showing in a presidential election, and just
as Capriles has consolidated himself as its leader.

LEGAL MOVE AGAINST CAPRILES?

Senior government figures have raised the possibility of
legal action against Capriles.

“Fascist Capriles, I will personally ensure you pay for the
damage you are doing to our fatherland and people,” National
Assembly head Diosdado Cabello said on Twitter, requesting that
state prosecutors open a criminal investigation.

But the opposition leader says he will fight on.

“We are not going to ignore the will of the people. We
believe we won … we want this problem resolved peacefully,”
Capriles told a news conference.

“There is no majority here, there are two halves.”
Opposition sources say their count showed Capriles won by more
than 300,000 votes.

His team says it has evidence of some 3,200 election day
irregularities, from voters using fake IDs to intimidation of
volunteers at polling centers. It wants an exhaustive check of
the paper-ballots printed at the time of casting a vote.

The focus of Monday’s protests in the capital was the Plaza
Altamira, which was often site of opposition demonstrations
during Chavez’s polarizing 14-year rule. Burned-out debris and
glass lay strews on the ground on Tuesday morning.

“We will protest for as long as it takes. We will not give
up the streets,” said Carlos Cusumano, a 20-year-old student who
took part in the protest.

Wearing T-shirts wrapped around their faces, some
demonstrators threw sticks and stones at the ranks of police,
who wore body armor and carried shields.

Maduro, who had initially said he was open to a recount,
called on his supporters to demonstrate all week. The official
results showed him winning by 265,000 votes.

“Maduro won and the people have proclaimed him,” said dental
technician Alicia Rodriguez, 38. “Learn to lose!” she added in
reference to the opposition’s stance.

The head of the electoral authority, Tibisay Lucena, shot
down the opposition leader’s call for a recount, saying “threats
and intimidation” were not the way to appeal its decisions.

She also accused the U.S. government and Organization of
American States of trying to meddle in Venezuelan affairs after
they backed the idea of a vote audit.

The controversy over Venezuela’s first presidential election
without Chavez on the ballot in two decades raised doubts about
the future of “Chavismo” – the late president’s self-proclaimed
socialist movement – without its towering and mercurial founder.

Chavez named Maduro as his heir in an emotional last public
speech to the nation before his death, giving the former foreign
minister and vice president a huge boost ahead of the vote.

But Maduro’s double-digit lead in opinion polls evaporated
in the final days as Capriles led an energetic campaign that
mocked Maduro as a non-entity and focused voters on daily
problems ranging from crime to inflation and creaking utilities.

Maduro’s margin of victory raises the possibility he could
face future challenges from rivals in the leftist coalition that
united around Chavez, who won four presidential elections.

At his last election in October, the former soldier beat
Capriles by 11 percentage points even though his battle with
cancer had severely restricted his ability to campaign.

(Additional reporting by Diego Ore and Girish Gupta; Editing by
Andrew Cawthorne and David Storey)

The 50-year-old former bus driver, whom Chavez named as his
preferred heir before dying from cancer, edged out opposition
challenger Henrique Capriles by winning 50.7 percent of the
votes in the election on Sunday. Capriles won 49.1 percent
support, a difference of just 235,000 ballots.

Capriles, whose strong showing beat most forecasts, refused
to recognize the result and said his team had a list of 3,000
irregularities ranging from gunshots to the illegal re-opening
of polling centers.

“I didn’t fight against a candidate today, but against the
whole abuse of power,” said Capriles, the 40-year-old governor
of Miranda state, demanding a recount.

“Mr. Maduro, the loser was you … This system is
collapsing, it’s like a castle of sand – touch it and it falls.”

A protracted election dispute could cause instability in a
deeply-polarized nation with the world’s largest oil reserves.

Though some opposition supporters chanted “fraud”, banged
pots and pans and burned tires in protest, Capriles did not call
them onto the streets en masse.

Maduro said he would accept a full recount, even as he
insisted his victory was clean and dedicated it to Chavez.

“We’ve had a fair, legal and constitutional triumph,” Maduro
told a victory rally. “To those who didn’t vote for us, I call
for unity. We are going to work together for the security and
economy of this country.”

The election board said Maduro’s win was “irreversible” and
gave no indication of when it might carry out an audit.

‘CHAVISMO’ CHALLENGED

Maduro’s slim victory provides an inauspicious start for the
“Chavismo” movement’s transition to a post-Chavez era, and
raises the possibility that he could face challenges from rivals
within the disparate leftist coalition.

His supporters set off fireworks, and some sang and danced
in the streets, but celebrations were far more muted than after
Chavez’s comfortable re-election last October.

“On one hand, we’re happy, but the result is not exactly
what we had expected,” said Gregory Belfort, 32, a computer
technician looking slightly dazed with other government
supporters in front of the presidential palace.

“It means there are a lot of people out there who support
Chavez but didn’t vote for Maduro, which is valid.”

The slim margin came as a shock to many ardent Chavez
supporters, who had become accustomed to his double-digit
election victories during his 14-year rule, including an 11
percentage point win over Capriles last October.

Maduro’s campaign was built almost entirely on his close
ties to the late leader and emotional stories of Chavez’s final
days before succumbing to cancer.

His narrow win leaves him with less authority to lead the
broad ruling alliance that includes military officers, oil
executives and armed slum leaders. It had been held together
mainly by Chavez’s iron grip and mesmerizing personality.

“This is the most delicate moment in the history of
‘Chavismo’ since 2002,” said Javier Corrales, a U.S. political
scientist and Venezuela expert at Amherst College, referring to
a brief coup against Chavez 11 years ago.

“With these results, the opposition might not concede
easily, and Maduro will have a hard time demonstrating to the
top leadership of Chavismo that he is a formidable leader.”

It will also add to the difficulty Maduro faces in moving
from the sentimental tales of Chavez that filled his campaign
into actual governance of a nation with high inflation, a
slowing economy, Byzantine currency controls and one of the
world’s worst crime rates.

“These results require deep self-criticism,” said Diosdado
Cabello, the powerful head of the National Assembly whom many
Venezuelans see as a potential rival to Maduro.

“It’s contradictory that some among the poor vote for those
who always exploit them,” Cabello added on Twitter. “Let’s turn
over every stone to find out faults but not put the fatherland
or the legacy of our commander (Chavez) in danger.”

(Additional reporting by Eyanir Chinea and Mario Naranjo in
Caracas, and David Adams in Miami; Editing by Kieran Murray and
Andrew Heavens)