THE clatter and clang of people banging pots and pans from their windows echoed through the streets of Caracas on Monday as people expressed despair after an election they claimed was stolen by President Nicolas Maduro.
The day began with the streets eerily quiet as citizens reeled from an election result that left many dumbfounded, contradicting as it did expectations a united opposition would easily oust Maduro after a turbulent decade in power.
Then began the cacophony of clattering cookware and sporadic protests in neighborhoods of the capital.
"I felt impotent. I went outside and screamed," said one resident, slamming the "false results" with tears in her eyes and requesting anonymity out of fear.
"This is because of the discontent," she said of the protest after electoral authorities announced Maduro had beaten opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia with 51 per cent of the vote.
The opposition insists it was the rightful victor, as predicted by pollsters, and the result sparked concern abroad over a lack of transparency.
"Where are the five million people celebrating Maduro?" a young man yelled from his apartment window.
Angelika Daron, 46, told AFP she had worked as an election monitor for the opposition and that in her view Gonzalez Urrutia had "won by a landslide."
"They stole the election," she said, crying on the sidewalk. Maduro has been in power since 2013 and is now set to rule until at least 2031.
Economic woes in the once-wealthy oil-rich country have pushed more than seven million of its 30 million citizens to emigrate. Now, little is holding back those who remained.
"Even though I love my country... I know that the only way out is to leave," said 34-year-old nurse Veruska Donado.
"Tyranny always wins and cheating always wins."
Mariana Perez, a 21-year-old shop assistant, said the result had "killed the dreams of many young people who were hopeful, who want to get ahead."
While many expressed a fear of protesting openly, Jenny Gil, 56, was bashing her cooking pot in the middle of a street in Candelaria, in the heart of the capital.
"Edmundo won. I was present at the voting station at the Andres Eloy school and we counted vote by vote, and he won, I have evidence that he won," she told AFP.
The opposition has said it won 70 per cent of the vote.
"All the rules have been violated," said Gonzalez Urrutia, the proxy candidate for charismatic and popular opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was disqualified from running.
Not far from where Gil was protesting, a group of youngsters climbed a streetlight to tear down one of the hundreds of posters bearing Maduro's face that line the streets of Caracas.
"When I heard the results I started crying, indignant, and I said tomorrow I will go out, because this cannot continue like this. Enough is enough!" said Janeth Carabano, 49, who said she was protesting for a better future for her two children and grandson.
"They robbed us," shouted a motorcyclist driving past the small protest, while others honked their horns in support.
The protest ended quickly after the group said they were threatened.
"A guy passed by and made a sign with his neck to tell us we were going to die," said Gil.
Not long afterward, as supporters of Maduro gathered to cheer him on as he was officially proclaimed the winner at the election commission, more protests began to erupt and police were deployed in large numbers to parts of the city.
In one neighborhood, protesters chanted: "It's going to fall, it's going to fall, this government is going to fall."
* The writer is from AFP