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Venezuela's Maduro continues to hold the pieces together
by Joseph Earnest May 2, 2016
Newscast Media CARACAS—It's a new time in Venezuela. On Sunday, the clocks in the South American country were brought forward to save electricity. The switch to daylight saving time could be a harbinger of political change.
Over the past several days, more than 1.5 million Venezuelans have signed a petition for a referendum to recall President Nicolas Maduro. Thanks to his mother - who smuggled the petition into the prison where he has been held since 2014 - opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez was also able to sign it.
"I'm full of hope," Lopez has written about the petition. "The signs suggest that change is on the way."
The response to the petition has emboldened the opposition, which also won parliamentary elections in December 2015. This week, the lists of signatures are scheduled to be put before the national electoral council for inspection. If the council decides that they are sufficient, a referendum can be held to vote Maduro out of office.
The clock is ticking for the Bolivarian Revolution announced by Maduro's more charismatic presidential predecessor, the now-deceased Hugo Chavez, after his election in 1998. Seventeen and a half years on, Venezuela - the country with the biggest oil reserves in the world - is economically and politically on the brink.
Both Chavez and Maduro held the belief that outside influences are behind the sabotage of Venezuela's economy, in an effort to hijack the country's oil, just like what happened in the Middle East. Add Comments>>
Source: Deutsche Welle
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