Venezuela opposition in new protests for recall vote

Venezuela's opposition held new protests Monday, seeking to convert widespread anger over food shortages and economic havoc into pressure for a referendum on removing embattled President Nicolas Maduro.

Clad in the red, yellow and blue of the Venezuelan flag, hundreds of opposition supporters rallied on a square in eastern Caracas, brandishing messages aimed at the allegedly pro-Maduro National Electoral Board (CNE): "Recall referendum now" and "My signature counts."

An economic crisis triggered by the collapse in the price of oil, the country's main export, has made daily life increasingly hard for Venezuelans, who face long lines at depleted supermarkets, hyperinflation, violent crime and daily power cuts.

"We're tired of shortages. We're not eating properly at my house. There's not enough money for anything," 41-year-old Morella Briceno said at the rally.
he opposition has submitted a petition with 1.8 million signatures in favor of a recall referendum and wants electoral authorities to move on to the next step: verifying at least 200,000 of those signatures with fingerprint scans.

The opposition would then need to submit a second petition with four million more signatures.

The opposition warns Venezuela risks erupting into unrest if electoral authorities do not let them call a referendum this year.

But their fractious coalition, the center-right National Unity Roundtable (MUD), has struggled to rally large numbers of protesters.

Monday's demo drew just a few hundred people in the capital.

- Key ruling rescheduled -

Maduro's opponents accuse the authorities of dragging their feet so any referendum will not be held until after January 10 -- four years into the leftist leader's six-year term -- when a successful recall vote would simply pass power to the vice president rather than trigger new elections.
The opposition reacted furiously Thursday when electoral authorities canceled a key meeting where they were due to tell MUD leaders whether they would be allowed to go ahead with calling a referendum.

The meeting has been rescheduled to Tuesday.

The electoral board was meeting Monday behind closed doors.

"While the CNE's members are locked in their meeting, we want them to know that outside there's a majority of the country that wants peaceful change," said MUD spokesman Jesus Torrealba.

He vowed new protests Tuesday outside the CNE, in defiance of a court order to keep demos away from the electoral board.

International mediators led by Spain's former prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero have met with both the government and opposition camps in the Dominican Republic to seek a solution to the crisis.

But both sides appear ambivalent. The opposition postponed a new meeting Monday, saying it was waiting to hear back from electoral authorities about the recall process first.

- 'Stop squabbling' -

The opposition has not yet managed to mobilize Venezuelans for mass protests, whether because they are too busy waiting in lines, afraid of the security forces or haunted by violence that killed 43 people during pro- and anti-government demonstrations in 2014.
But spontaneous protests against food shortages have broken out in neighborhoods once seen as bastions for Maduro and his late predecessor, Hugo Chavez.

Like scores of looting sprees that have erupted since the start of the year across Venezuela, these tend to be forcefully stamped out by heavily armed police and soldiers.

Many Venezuelans are fed up with both Maduro's camp and the opposition, which won control of congress in legislative elections last December but has struggled to wield power in the face of a hostile Supreme Court.

"I've already dealt with two lines today to buy rice and sugar. Instead of squabbling they should fill the supermarkets," said Eneuris Cantillo, 46, who was waiting in line outside a store in the capital.

Riots broke out Sunday outside a supermarket on the Caribbean island of Margarita off the Venezuelan coast, local media said. At least eight people were reportedly arrested.

Source: AFP