OAS convenes extraordinary meeting to address Nicolás Maduro's electoral fraud in Venezuela

The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) convened an extraordinary meeting for Wednesday to "address the results of Sunday's electoral process" in Venezuela after the opposition and the international community questioned the reelection of Nicolas Maduro.

The meeting will be held at 19:00 GMT on July 31 at the OAS headquarters in Washington, the hemispheric body announced Monday in a statement.

The governments of Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic and Uruguay had announced earlier in a statement that they would request a summit of the OAS Permanent Council.

After hours of uncertainty on Sunday, Venezuela's pro-government National Electoral Council ended up giving Maduro the victory with 51.2% of the votes against 44.2% for the main opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez.

But both the opposition, led by Maria Corina Machado, and much of the international community, including the United States, the European Union, Brazil and Colombia, questioned the results, which gave Maduro his third consecutive six-year term.

U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, for example, expressed "serious concern" about the result and called for a "fair and transparent" recount of the votes.

Despite the appeals, Venezuelan authorities already celebrated Maduro's act of proclamation, who denounced an attempted coup d'état "of a fascist and counterrevolutionary character."

On Monday, several sectors of Caracas were the scene of protests against the reelection of the Chavista leader, who has been in power since 2013.

Police repressed one of those demonstrations with tear gas east of the Venezuelan capital.