VENEZUELAN President Nicolas Maduro addressed crowds outside the Miraflores palace on Monday, calling on the nation’s youth to defeat the far right.

Students and representatives of social movements marched to the palace to rally against attempts to overturn the election result, which the opposition and some foreign countries, led by the United States, refuse to recognise.

“I say to the cowardly fascists, you will hide, but the patriotic and revolutionary youth are in the streets and we will never hide. It is time that each one define himself, do you love and defend Venezuela or will you let fascism come,” the president declared.

The country’s top prosecutor has launched a criminal investigation into opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez and leader Maria Corina Machado after they called on the military to overthrow the government.

Both have gone into hiding, saying they fear they will be killed, though the authorities never tried to harm a previous opposition pretender to the presidency, Juan Guaido.