Tracy family via AP

A family photo shows Tim Tracy in Venezuela. The 35-year-old California filmmaker was arrested by Venezuelan authorities and accused of spying for the U.S., setting off a diplomatic battle between the countries.

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela brushed off criticism from President Barack Obama on Sunday and maintained its accusation that an American detainee in Caracas is a spy pretending to be a filmmaker.

During his visit to Latin America, Obama said on Saturday the allegations against Tim Tracy, 35, were "ridiculous."

This came a day after Venezuela's new socialist leader, Nicolas Maduro, labeled Obama "the grand chief of devils."

Venezuelan Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres insisted that intelligence agents tracking Tracy since late 2012 had uncovered ample evidence he was plotting with militant anti-government factions to destabilize Venezuela with violence.

Juan Barreto / AFP - Getty Images

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro had harsh words for U.S. President Barack Obama over the weekend. Obama says the Maduro government's allegation that a California filmmaker is a spy is "ridiculous." Maduro says Obama is the "grand chief of devils."

"When you want to do intelligence work in another country, all those big powers who do this type of spying, they often use the facade of a filmmaker, documentary maker, photographer or journalist," he told state TV.

"Because with that facade, they can go anywhere, penetrate any place."

Obama's comments about Tracy, and others questioning socialist Maduro's democratic credentials after last month's disputed presidential vote, have infuriated the government and revived accusations of "imperialist meddling."

Late on Saturday, Maduro's government issued a formal protest note, with Maduro's "devils" remark reminiscent of the tirades his mentor, late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, made against the U.S.

Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver who rose to be Chavez's foreign minister and vice president, has alternately railed against Washington in the same terms as Chavez and fanned prospects of a rapprochement by offering dialogue.

"I think he actually wants to improve relations with the North, but because he's vulnerable domestically right now, he needs to revive the old blood-and-thunder rhetoric to shore up support," said a Western diplomat in Caracas.

The Tracy case is a crucial test of Maduro's intentions toward a country that remains the main export market for the OPEC member's oil despite years of political hostility.

Friends and family of Tracy say he became passionately interested in Venezuelan politics and had excellent relations on both sides.

"Understandably, we have been living in a nightmare since a week ago last Thursday, when we feel our son/brother Timmy, a filmmaker, was mistakenly detained by Venezuelan authorities while attempting to return to the United States to attend his/our Dad's 80th birthday party," Tracy's family said in a written statement released to Reuters.

The family said that they had been communication with him and had that he had been treated well.

"We love and miss our son/ brother very much and want nothing more than to have him home safely as soon as possible," Tracy's family said.

Related:

• Parliamentary punch-up in Venezuela
• 7 die in Venezuela election protests
• Analysis: Major challenges await leader

Leo Ramirez / AFP - Getty Images

Opposition deputy Julio Borges (C) walks out after a fight with the ruling party deputies inside the Venezuelan parliament, in Caracas on April 30, 2013.

Loud insults turned into to heavy pushing, punches, kicks and scuffling in the Venezuelan parliament Tuesday, the continuing fall-out of recent elections has infuriated half the country.

As political disagreements became physical, seven opposition legislators were reportedly injured as the result of the heated session.

"They can beat us, jail us, kill us, but we will not sell out our principles," Julio Borges, an opposition parliamentarian, told a local TV station while visibly enraged with blood dripping down his face. "These blows give us more strength."

The opposition claims its representatives were physically attacked while protesting against being blocked from speaking in the National Assembly.

But the socialist government in power, with President Nicolas Maduro having grabbed leadership after Hugo Chavez death, accused the “fascist” opposition legislators of having started the brawl.

The 50-year-old Maduro, who was Chavez's chosen successor, defeated opposition candidate Henrique Capriles by 1.5 percentage points. Capriles, 40, has refused to recognize the victory, alleging that thousands of irregularities were committed and the vote "stolen."

The fracas came after the government-controlled assembly passed a measure denying opposition members the right to speak in the chamber until they recognized Maduro as president.

"Until they recognize the authorities, the institutions of the Republic, the sovereign will of our people, the opposition deputies will have to go and speak (to the private media) but not here in this National Assembly," said Diosdado Cabello, the head of parliament.

Since the election, at least eight people have died in street protests and dozens have been arrested. Maduro has publicly stated that he believes the opposition is planning a coup.

Reuters contributed to this report

Enrique Castro-Mendivil / Reuters

Nicolas Maduro gestures after a meeting with presidents of the Unasur regional group at the government palace in Lima, Peru, on Friday. He is due to be sworn in as Venezuela's president later.

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Nicolas Maduro will be sworn in as Venezuela's president on Friday at a ceremony attended by several Latin American leaders, after a decision to widen an electronic audit of the vote took some of the heat out of a dispute over his election.

Maduro, a former bus driver-turned-foreign minister who became the late Hugo Chavez's chosen successor, narrowly beat opposition challenger Henrique Capriles in Sunday's vote.

He accused Capriles of triggering post-election violence that killed eight people, though the opposition says Maduro allies staged some incidents to distract from the vote dispute.

Slideshow: Hugo Chavez through the years

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The life of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez from his rise as a lieutenant colonel after his failed coup attempt in 1992.

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"We have stopped a coup in its first stage. They are beaten, but they are coming back with a new attack," Maduro said on Thursday before flying to Peru for a last-minute meeting of South American leaders to discuss the situation.

While he was in Lima, Venezuela's electoral authority said it would widen to 100 percent an audit of electronic votes from a previous audit that reviewed 54 percent.

"We do this in order to preserve a climate of harmony ... and isolate violent sectors that are seeking to injure democracy," Tibisay Lucena, president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), said in a televised speech to the nation.

Maduro, 50, received a show of support at the late-night meeting of a group of South American nations called Unasur, which welcomed the CNE's move, congratulated him on his victory and called on both sides to reject violence.

Capriles, who insists the opposition's figures show he won, said he accepted the CNE's decision although it fell short of the manual recount he had wanted. He said he was sure the truth would come out.

The date for the start of the wider audit is to be announced by next week.

Heads of state who will join Maduro's swearing-in include Brazil's Dilma Rousseff and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, along with leaders of Chavez-era allies such as Bolivia, Uruguay and Nicaragua.

Russia and China, both partners in major oil projects in Venezuela's vast Orinoco belt region, sent delegations headed by senior officials.

The inauguration ceremony is due to be held at the National Assembly and will be followed by a military parade. Jets making practice runs have often soared over the capital this week.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez said on Twitter that on Saturday morning she planned to visit the military museum in Caracas where her friend Chavez is buried.

"I want to be there a bit more alone, without so many people, without so much noise," she said. "To Caracas, without Hugo. It's going to be difficult and strange at the same time. His funerals were so impressive it was like I was in a daze."

The unrest in Venezuela, just weeks after Chavez's death from cancer, has exposed the deep polarization of a country split down the middle between pro- and anti-government factions.

Maduro's administration accuses "fascist" Capriles supporters of going on the rampage, shooting people, attacking offices belonging to the ruling Socialist Party, and setting fire to government-run clinics staffed by Cuban doctors.

Capriles, who has repeatedly called on his supporters to behave peacefully, has said the government was to blame for any violence because of its refusal to hold a recount.

"We have identified where the problems are. With this, we're where we want to be," he said of the vote audit. He also demanded the government stop "persecuting" his supporters, and said there was no evidence of attacks on the state-run clinic, known as CDIs.

"I asked for reports from all the country's municipalities about incidents at CDIs," he said on Twitter. "None were affected. Only sick minds would do something like this!"

Slideshow: Hugo Chavez: 1954 - 2013

Francisco Gomez / Spanish Royal / EPA

Supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez mourn his death and gather for his funeral.

Launch slideshow

Related: 

• Coup claim as 7 die in Venezuela election protests
• Venezuela divided: Recount sought after razor-thin victory of Chavez successor
• Full Venezuela coverage from NBC News

Venezuela awoke to political turmoil Monday after Hugo Chavez's chosen successor, Nicolas Maduro, won the country’s presidential election by such a tight margin that his rival demanded a recount.

The country, already shaken by the death from cancer of its dominating leader, faces uncertainty after Maduro secured 50.7 percent of the votes in Sunday's election, compared with 49.1 percent for Henrique Capriles -- a difference of just 235,000 ballots.

"This is the most delicate moment in the history of 'Chavismo' since 2002," Javier Corrales, a U.S. political scientist and Venezuela expert at Amherst College in Massachusetts, told Reuters, referring to a brief coup against Chavez 11 years ago.

"With these results, the opposition might not concede easily, and Maduro will have a hard time demonstrating to the top leadership of Chavismo that he is a formidable leader."

Capriles refused to recognize the result and said his team had a list of more than 3,000 polling irregularities, Reuters reported.

"This struggle has not ended,” he said. "We are not going to recognize a result until each vote of Venezuelans is counted.”

"I didn't fight against a candidate today, but against the whole abuse of power," said Capriles, the 40-year-old governor of Miranda state. "Mr. Maduro, you were the loser. ... This system is collapsing, it's like a castle of sand -- touch it and it falls."

Officials said Maduro would be formally proclaimed winner at a ceremony and rally in downtown Caracas as early as Monday afternoon, Reuters reported.

For his part, Maduro said he would accept a full recount, even as he insisted his victory was clean and dedicated it to Chavez. 

"We've had a fair, legal and constitutional triumph," Maduro told his victory rally. "To those who didn't vote for us, I call for unity." 

One key Chavista leader expressed dismay over the outcome, The Associated Press reported. National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, whom many consider Maduro's main rival within their movement, tweeted: "The results oblige us to make a profound self-criticism."

A modest but noisy crowd of Maduro supporters celebrated in Caracas’ Chacao neighborhood, waving flags and setting off fireworks.

A perception that Maduro has a weak mandate could prompt challenges from within the disparate ruling coalition that formed around Chavez, just as overstretched state finances force him to slow the very oil-funded largesse he staked his reputation on maintaining, Reuters said.

The OPEC nation's strong growth is seen by most private economists as dropping this year as the government pares back following hefty spending in 2012 that was a key driver of the economy and helped Chavez win re-election in October, Reuters reported.

However, the New York Times reported that Maduro’s victory could see repairs made to the fractured relationship between Venezuela and the United States.

Bill Richardson, the former governor of New Mexico, who was in Caracas as a representative of the Organization of American States, said in an interview that Maduro called him aside after a meeting of election observers on Saturday and asked him to carry a message, the NYT reported.

“He said, ‘We want to improve the relationship with the U.S., regularize the relationship,’” the newspaper quoted Richardson as saying.

Venezuela's electronic voting system is digital but generates a paper receipt for each vote, making a vote-by-vote recount possible, the AP said. 

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:

Dramatic exit: Heads of state gather for Chavez's funeral

Chavez's last words: 'Please don't let me die,' general says

Full Venezuela coverage from NBC News

This story was originally published on Mon Apr 15, 2013 12:01 AM EDT

Leo Ramirez / AFP - Getty Images

People line up to cast their vote at a polling station in Petare shantytown, Caracas, on April 14, 2013. Venezuelans headed to the polls on April 14.

CARACAS, Venezuela — Voters who kept Hugo Chavez in office for 14 years were deciding Sunday whether to elect the devoted lieutenant he chose to carry on the revolution that endeared him to the poor but that many Venezuelans believe is ruining the nation.

Across Caracas, trucks blaring bugle calls awoke Venezuelans long before dawn in the ruling socialists' traditional election day get-out-the-vote tactic. This time, they also boomed Chavez's voice singing the national anthem.

Nicolas Maduro was riding on Chavez's endorsement with a campaign largely silent on the issues but freighted with personal attacks that was otherwise little more than an unflagging tribute to the polarizing leader who died of cancer March 5.

Chavez's longtime Chavez foreign minister pinned his hopes on the immense loyalty for his boss among millions of poor beneficiaries of a socialist government's largesse and the heft of a state apparatus that Chavez skillfully consolidated.

The governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela deployed a well-worn get-out-the-vote machine spearheaded by loyal state employees. It also enjoyed a pervasive state media apparatus as part of a near monopoly on institutional power.

Challenger Henrique Capriles' aides accused Chavista loyalists in the judiciary of putting them at glaring disadvantage by impoverishing the campaign and opposition broadcast media by targeting them with unwarranted fines and prosecutions.

Capriles' main campaign weapon was simply to point out "the incompetence of the state," as he put it to reporters Saturday night.

Maduro, 50, was still favored, but his early big lead in opinion polls halved over the past two weeks in a country struggling with the legacy of Chavez's management of the world's largest oil reserves. Millions of Venezuelans were lifted out of poverty under Chavez, but many also believe that his confederates not only squandered but also plundered much of the $1 trillion in oil revenues during his time in office.

People are fed up with chronic power outages, crumbling infrastructure, unfinished public works projects, double-digit inflation, food and medicine shortages and rampant crime that has given Venezuela among the world's highest homicide and kidnapping rates.

"We can't continue to believe in messiahs," said Jose Romero, a 48-year-old industrial engineer who voted for Capriles in the central city of Valencia. "This country has learned a lot and today we know that one person can't fix everything."

In Caracas, 59-year-old street vendor Jose Alzualde said he believed, however, that "Chavez's legacy should continue." He said Venezuela "needs a united country in order to advance. There are political divisions that should end."

Capriles is a 40-year-old state governor who lost to Chavez in October's presidential election by a nearly 11-point margin, the best showing ever by a challenger to the longtime president.

He showed Maduro none of the respect he had accorded Chavez. Maduro hit back hard, at one point calling Capriles' backers "heirs of Hitler." It was an odd accusation considering that Capriles is the grandson of Holocaust survivors from Poland.

"Capriles ran a remarkable campaign that shows he has creativity, tenacity and disposition to play political hardball," said David Smilde, an analyst with the Washington Office on Latin America think tank.

At his campaign rallies, Capriles would read out a list of unfinished road, bridge and rail projects. Then he asked people what goods were scarce on store shelves. The opposition contends Chavez looted the treasury last year to buy re-election with government largesse. It also complains about the steady flow of cut-rate oil to Cuba, which Capriles says will end if he is elected.

Venezuela's $30 billion fiscal deficit accounts for about 10 percent of gross domestic product.

Maduro, a former union activist and bus driver with close ties to Cuba's leaders, constantly alleged that Capriles was conspiring with U.S. putschists to destabilize Venezuela and even suggested Washington had infected Chavez with the cancer that killed him.

He focused his campaign message on his mentor: "I am Chavez. We are all Chavez" and promised to expand anti-poverty programs.

Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank said Maduro campaigned "ineptly," trying too hard to "replay the Chavez script" and alienating moderate Chavistas.

Whoever wins Sunday will face no end of hard choices.

Many factories operate at half capacity because strict currency controls make it hard for them to pay for imported parts and materials. Business leaders say some companies are on verging on bankruptcy because they are unable to extend lines of credit with foreign suppliers.

Chavez imposed currency controls a decade ago trying to stem capital flight as his government expropriated large land parcels and dozens of businesses. Now, dollars sell on the black market at three times the official exchange rate and Maduro has had to devalue Venezuela's currency, the bolivar, twice this year.

Meanwhile, consumers grumble that stores are short of milk, butter, corn flour and other staples. The government blames hoarding, while the opposition points at the price controls imposed by Chavez in an attempt to bring down double-digit inflation.

A 40-year-old lawyer who sometimes works with the government said as he walked with his wife and two small children to the polls in central Caracas that he was fed up and voting for Capriles.

"But I can't say that openly because I could lose work," said the man, who would only give his first name, Marcelino.

"But we can't have fear," his wife, Lisette Ruiz, told him. "If Maduro wins everything is going to get worse."

Capriles said he will reverse land expropriations, which he says have ruined many farms and forced Venezuela to import food after previously being a net exporter of beef, rice, coffee and other foods. But even Capriles said currency and price controls cannot be immediately scrapped without triggering a disastrous run on the bolivar.

High international oil prices remain a boon for Venezuela, underpinning its economy. Chavez spent $500 billion to bolster social programs, trimming the poverty rate from 50 percent to about 30 percent.

But critics say the government has misused the oil industry, ordering the state oil company PDVSA into food distribution and financing of social programs while neglecting needed investment, causing production and refining to drop.

Venezuela's oil revenue is down from $5.6 billion five years ago to $3.8 billion in 2012, and PDVSA's debt climbed to $40 billion last year. The country even imports 100,000 barrels a day of gasoline from the United States.

Associated Press writers Fabiola Sanchez in Caracas and Vivian Sequera in Valencia, Venezuela contributed to this report.

Jorge Silva / Reuters / REUTERS

Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro (C) and National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello (R) stand next to a painting of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as they attend the commemoration of the 21st anniversary of Chavez's attempted cuop d'etat in Caracas, Feb. 4, 2013.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is undergoing "complex" alternative treatments more than two months after having cancer surgery in Cuba, his vice president said on Wednesday.

The 58-year-old socialist leader has not been seen in public since he went to Havana for the operation on Dec. 11, his fourth surgery for cancer in 18 months.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro did not give details of the alternative treatments the president was receiving. Chavez has never said what type of cancer he is suffering from, and critics accuse the government of excessive secrecy over his condition.

"Today our commander is undergoing alternative treatments ... they are complex and difficult treatments that must, at some point, end the cycle of his illness," Maduro said in comments on state TV.

The government, which rejects allegations it has not been transparent about Chavez's health, says he has completed a difficult post-operative period and has started a "new phase" of his recuperation. It has not given details of this new phase.

Any new vote in South America's top oil exporter would probably pit Maduro, Chavez's heir apparent, against Henrique Capriles, the 40-year-old governor of Miranda state, who lost to Chavez in last October's presidential election.