The top leaders of the Venezuelan opposition called Saturday for an "enormous" turnout next Sunday to protest the contested reelection of President Nicolas Maduro.
"We have to act now," Maria Corina Machado said in a virtual meeting with other opposition activists. "This December 1 will be a unique demonstration."
Protests will take place "inside and outside Venezuela," added Machado, who has been in hiding after government threats of imprisonment.
She also promised "firmer, more decisive action" ahead of January 10, when Maduro is set to be sworn in to a new term in office.
Machado and her party's candidate in the July 28 elections, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, have accused the Maduro government of widespread electoral fraud.
The country's National Electoral Council proclaimed Maduro the winner, but the government has refused to provide detailed voting data to substantiate its claim.
Anti-government protests since then claimed 28 lives, leaving 200 people injured and more than 2,400 in jail.
The authorities subsequently launched investigations of opposition leaders and called for Gonzalez Urrutia's arrest.
He fled to Spain but has promised to return to be sworn in as president on January 10. "There is no doubt about that," he said in the virtual meeting.
"We are fighting, we are taking our voice -- the voice of all Venezuelans -- abroad," he said, adding that he had found "great receptivity" to the opposition cause during visits to Portugal, Italy and Belgium.
Countries including the United States, Italy and Ecuador have recognized Gonzalez Urrutia as Venezuela's legitimate president-elect.
Treason investigation
The call to protest came a day after Venezuelan prosecutors opened a treason investigation into opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.
Prosecutors accuse her of supporting US sanctions targeting President Nicolas Maduro after his contested July reelection.
In a statement, the prosecutor's office said it has opened the inquiry because Machado's support for tougher US measures constitutes "treason to the homeland, according to article 128 of the penal code, (and) conspiracy with foreign countries."
The office said it is "fighting against any person, group, or national or international entity that threatens the stability of the country."
On Monday, the US House of Representatives passed the BOLIVAR Act, a bipartisan bill which bars US federal agencies from conducting business with the Maduro regime or its associates. It still needs passage by the Senate and President Joe Biden's signature for it to become law.
Caracas reacted angrily to the House action, saying the bill would violate the UN Charter.
US pressure
During Donald Trump's first term as US president, from 2017 to 2021, he imposed a policy of maximum pressure — including tightening financial sanctions and instituting an oil embargo — in an unsuccessful effort to oust Maduro from power.
The measures were later softened by President Joe Biden, whose administration nonetheless refused to recognize Maduro's claim to have won a third term in July 2024 elections, which were again marked by allegations of fraud.
Maduro claimed victory and defied domestic and international calls to release detailed polling numbers to back up the assertion that he won.
The opposition claimed that its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who had been swiftly picked to run in Machado's place after she was declared ineligible, won with over 67 percent of the vote.
Amid an outcry at home and abroad, the former bus driver Maduro, handpicked by the late Hugo Chavez, is now serving his third term in the oil-rich country whose economy is in shambles, as Venezuelans endure acute shortages of food, medicine and other basic goods.
Maduro is accused of leading a harshly repressive leftist regime, with a systematic crackdown on the opposition.
Washington has not recognized Maduro's victory said for the first time this week it recognizes Gonzalez Urrutia as Venezuela's president-elect.