CARACAS (Reuters) - Nearly 7.2 million Venezuelans participated in an informal plebiscite organised on Sunday by the opposition against leftist President Nicolas Maduro's government, according to academics monitoring the vote.

That was not far off the total opposition vote of 7.7 million votes in Venezuela's December 2015 parliamentary elections and was hailed by Maduro's foes as a resounding expression of popular discontent against him.

(Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Himani Sarkar)