CARACAS: The election was three days ago, but near the crisp white facade of Venezuela's presidential palace hundreds of noisy voters are still in campaign mode.
"Struggle! Battle! Victory, my friends!" yells a man with a loudspeaker.
The crowd cheer at the name of their late socialist hero Hugo Chavez and his successor Nicolas Maduro.
Maduro lost a battle in Sunday's legislative election, but for these loyalists Chavez's "revolution" is not over. It just needs tweaking.
The center-right opposition was celebrating winning control of the legislature from Maduro for the first time in 16 years of "Chavism."
With the country wondering how the power struggle between Maduro and the opposition will now play out, the first small signs of resistance were emerging meanwhile from the loyal Chavistas.
The gathering near the Miraflores palace was a "people's assembly" of Chavist loyalist groups, the first sign of Maduro's popular support base mobilizing after the vote.
Elsewhere in Caracas on Wednesday, Maduro loyalists burst into a press conference by two Chavist ex-ministers critical of the president, yelling "Traitors!"
"We are in a revolutionary emergency and it is our fault what happened" in the election, said one of the ex-ministers, Hector Navarro.
Shortly afterwards, the angry demonstrators forced to him flee and seek protection from the police.
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