Venezuela Descending Into Riots & Chaos After Questionable Election Results

The country of Venezuela is descending into violent chaos this morning, with citizens protesting a "sham" election in the streets, government buildings being "stormed" and armed troops opening fire upon unarmed citizens.

It began this past weekend, with a Presidential Election in Venezuela. As with most countries, the news media there undertook "Exit Polling" wherein they inquired of voters who were leaving a Polling Place, how they voted.

Once Polls in the country closed, the media began broadcasting the results of the exit polls, showing the Opposition garnering 60-65% of the vote, and incumbent President Nikolas Maduro getting 30-35%. Suddenly, during the evening, all the media were ordered by Government to STOP broadcasting the Exit Poll data. Shortly thereafter, President Nikolas Maduro was "declared" the winner. It went downhill very fast after that.

Thousands of furious Venezuelans took to the streets Monday to protest what they called a stolen election, tearing down posters of President Nicolas Maduro as the banging of pots and pans echoed through Caracas.

Venezuelans weary from years of food shortages, dwindling household incomes and a leftist government criticized as authoritarian, expressed despair after the electoral council loyal to Maduro said he won a third term in Sunday's voting.

The opposition, which polls had predicted would win by a landslide, said it took more than two-thirds of the votes in the oil-rich country whose economy lies in ruins.

"We were robbed last night," an angry Melanie Fiser, 22, told AFP, rejecting the official results.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) gave Maduro 51 percent of the votes, against 44 percent for Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the soft-spoken proxy for wildly popular opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. Yet, by their own numbers, the totals PROVE outright fraud because the totals add-up to 109.2% of the vote! Here. Look: