Sick of crisis, Venezuelans line up to recall Maduro

Venezuelans lined up Wednesday to seek a recall referendum against President Nicolas Maduro, exasperated with a grinding crisis that has paralyzed government offices five days a week and triggered rolling blackouts.

A day after Maduro announced his latest drastic measures to tackle power shortages in the recession-hit country, the opposition was gathering signatures for an official petition to launch a referendum.

Citizens queued up to sign, voicing anger at Maduro over a crisis that has led to power outages for four hours a day in most of the country, exacerbating an already disastrous economic implosion.

"I came to sign it to end this anarchy," said Miriam Leal, 54, in eastern Caracas."We are lacking medicine, work, education, and on top of that there is the electricity problem."

The International Monetary Fund issued a stark warning on the state of Venezuela's oil-dependent economy, hit hard by the collapse in global crude prices.

"The economic situation is not sustainable in the medium term," said Alejandro Werner, director of the IMF's Western Hemisphere department.

He warned the economy would shrink eight percent this year and inflation would exceed 700 percent.

The crisis is taking an increasingly heavy toll on weary Venezuelans.After daily power-cuts were imposed on Monday, looting was reported in several places including the country's second-biggest city, Maracaibo.

"The situation is very tense. There are areas that have been nearly 10 hours without electricity and that has made people even more annoyed," said Doris Falcon, a Maracaibo resident.

Isolated incidents were also reported in the capital Caracas.

- Warning against violence -

Maduro on Tuesday announced enforced leave for public sector employees three workdays a week for at least two weeks in a bid to slash electricity use.

His Vice President Aristobulo Isturiz also said primary and high schools would be closed on Fridays.That followed the start of daily four-hour electricity blackouts in several states on Monday, which Maduro said would last 40 days.

Electricity shortages have compounded an economic crisis that has left Venezuelans queuing for hours in shops to buy scarce goods.

Venezuela has the world's largest oil reserves. 

But the government has resisted using crude to generate electricity, calling it inefficient. Neither has it built more generating plants with other technologies, such as nuclear.

"I ask for greater understanding, support, solidarity, action and awareness," Maduro said in a televised address on Tuesday."Whoever attempts violence during circumstances such as these... will be hit with the fullest weight of the law, because they are committing serious crimes against security and the homeland."

The government blames the power shortage on a drought caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon, which has caused the country's hydroelectric dams to run low.

Critics blame government mismanagement.

The government has also said it will shift its time zone forward on Sunday by 30 minutes to save power by extending the hours of daylight.

- Referendum by Christmas? -

Maduro is under fire from the center-right opposition which took control of the legislature in January after winning a landslide election victory.Leading opposition figure Henrique Capriles said Wednesday his side hoped to hold a referendum as early as November.

The opposition advanced Tuesday in its quest to oust Maduro when the National Electoral Board handed over the paperwork allowing them to seek the nearly 200,000 signatures needed as a first step towards calling a referendum to remove the president before the end of his term in 2019.

But the mission could be complicated. Analysts say Maduro's allies could stall until January 2017, at which point a successful recall vote would no longer trigger new elections but transfer power to the vice-president.

Maduro's opponents say he controls the National Electoral Board and the Supreme Court, which has blocked several of their bills in the legislature.Legislative speaker Henry Ramos Allup accused Maduro's camp of "terrorizing" government employees to prevent them from signing the recall petition.

"They've told them that any employee who signs is fired," he told journalists.

"They don't want there to be a recall referendum."

Analysts and some politicians have warned that public discontent could lead to mass unrest in the country, which is already ranked by the United Nations as one of the most violent in the world.

Anti-government protests left 43 people dead in 2014.

Source:AFP