Venezuelan opposition seeks recall referendum for president

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans poured on to the streets of Caracas on Thursday to protest against the government of Nicolás Maduro and to demand a recall referendum.

Police deployed in their hundreds to keep apart anti-government protesters angry at food and medicine shortages from Maduro's supporters who vowed to defend his "socialist revolution".

According to the Guardian, residents of one apartment block built as part of the government’s free housing program on Libertador Avenue, threw rocks down on marchers, who simply moved to the other side of the street.

The rallies come at a highly volatile time for Venezuela, where a plunge in prices for oil exports has caused shortages, violent crime and outbreaks of looting.

The opposition blames Maduro for the economic crisis and wants a referendum on removing him from power.

“We Venezuelans are peaceful and we cannot allow ourselves to be provoked by those who do not want change,” said opposition leader Henrique Capriles on the eve of the march.

Maduro has accused the opposition of orchestrating a coup attempt against his socialist government. Several key opposition figures were detained in the run-up to the march on charges they were planning acts of violence during the protests.

Speaking to supporters on Wednesday, Maduro said that he had asked the supreme court to lift the immunity from prosecution enjoyed by members of the national assembly, which has been under opposition control since December. He is said to have cautioned that anyone suspected of being involved in a possible coup would be arrested.

But on Thursday, Maduro told supporters in central Caracas that authorities had dismantled a “camp of Colombian paramilitaries” who he alleged would have participated in the coup, arresting 92 people. Maduro said he had tasked the interior minister, Néstor Reverol, who is wanted in the US on drug trafficking charges, to present the proof of the coup plot to Venezuelans “soon”.

While march leaders deny a coup is afoot, they do want to see Maduro ousted from office through a referendum to recall the embattled president.

Jesús “Chuo” Torrealba, leader of the opposition coalition, dismissed accusations that the march was part of a coup plot.

“When we go to Miraflores [the presidential palace] it will be to stay, with the votes of the people,” he told marchers, calling on them to return home peacefully.

Maduro was elected in 2013 to succeed the charismatic socialist president Hugo Chávez who ruled from 1999 until his death from cancer, but he has failed to garner the same popular support amid a downward economic spiral and rampant crime.