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AFP
CARACAS
A FURIOUS Venezuelan opposition vowed mass street protests next week, accusing the Socialist government Friday of staging a coup by blocking efforts for a recall referendum against unpopular President Nicolas Maduro.
With Maduro vowing to hold onto power, his opponents cranked up the heat in a stand-off that is destabilizing the volatile, oil-rich South American state, stricken by food shortages and violent crime.
The opposition MUD coalition called for nationwide demonstrations from next Wednesday against the decision to annul a key stage in the referendum process.
"A coup d'etat was carried out yesterday against all Venezuelans," Henrique Capriles, a leading MUD figure, told a press conference, shouting furiously.
Authorities on Thursday quashed the opposition's main strategy to get rid of the man they accuse of driving the oil-rich country to the brink of economic collapse.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) said it had indefinitely suspended the recall referendum process after criminal courts in five states ruled the opposition had committed fraud in an initial petition drive.
The opposition had been gearing up for the last hurdle in the complex process: a three-day drive starting next Wednesday to collect signatures from four million voters demanding a recall referendum.
Now that the courts and electoral authorities have stymied that bid, Capriles said Wednesday would instead mark the start of a wave of street protests.
"That day is going to be the beginning of a mobilization across the whole country," he said.
"We will take Venezuela from end to end. People will be mobilized in every corner of our country to restore constitutional order."
