Presidents from several South American nations will gather in Lima, Peru on Thursday night for an emergency meeting on the unrest in Venezuela, which followed its narrow Presidential Election result.

Interim President Nicolas Maduro won the poll by a slight margin.  He is the anointed successor of Hugo Chavez, and plans to carry on Chavez’ “Bolivarian Socialist” policies.  The more conservative and west-friendly Enrique Capriles is refusing to accept the defeat, and eight of his supporters have died in street battles with police and security forces.

The governments of Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, and Argentina are among those who have accepted Maduro’s victory. The presidents of Peru, Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia and Brazil will attend the meeting, held under the umbrella of the “Union of South American Nations” (UNASUR) group.  The leaders of many of those nations will then proceed to Caracas for Maduro’s inauguration, including Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff, who is very influential in regional politics.

But Chavez’ and Maduro’s long-time antagonists in Washington, D.C. have not accepted the election results, and the European Union has said it was “concerned by the growing polarization of Venezuelan society.”

President Maduro responded, “We don't care about your recognition.  We have chosen to be free, and we are going to be free with or without you.”