Hello and

welcome to Newsar from the BBC World Service coming to you live from our studios in

central London. I'm Julian Marshall.

Nicholas Madura has received the strongest regional challenge yet to his disputed re-election

on Sunday, the Organization of American States, the OAS, a grouping of more than 30 countries in the Americas,

says there was exceptional manipulation in the election,

and it accused the Venezuelan government of trying to distort the result. in the of available voting records show that their candidate at Mundo Gonzalez won

convincingly and it accuses the government of stepping up its repression of

activists meanwhile scores of people have answered the opposition's call

to come out and reject the election result, crowds in the streets of the capital Caracas,

blue horns in protest, and demanded freedom.

Venezuela says about 750 people have been arrested in protests against the official outcome of the election.

Stefan Ducharich, who is the spokesperson for the UN Secretary General, said

Venezuelans must be allowed to exercise their right to peaceful protest.

We're very concerned about these reports of arrests.

It's important that all political leaders and their supporters reject all form of violence,

threats of violence, or incitement to violence.

It is also, as it is in every country, a primordial that the authorities respect the right of people to demonstrate peacefully,

and that they should protect that right and not need to ensure the full transparency of the election

results including the immediate breakdown of the

policy policy of the votes by polling stations.

Stefan Ducharich and a little earlier I spoke to Guillaumeau

...