Protests erupt in Venezuela as anti-Maduro recall delayed

Crisis-torn Venezuela's opposition held new protests yesterday after electoral authorities announced the latest delay in the process of calling a referendum on removing President Nicolas Maduro from power.

Hundreds of protesters marched in Caracas carrying Venezuelan flags and a giant banner reading "We won't take it," after electoral authorities indefinitely postponed announcing dates for the final stage in the referendum process.

Maduro's opponents, who blame the leftist leader for a crushing recession and severe food shortages, must collect four million signatures in three days to trigger a recall referendum.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) had been due to announce the timeline yesterday.

But late Thursday it said the announcement -- which had already been pushed back from Tuesday -- would have to wait until opposition protests no longer threatened the safety of its staff.

The speaker of the opposition-majority legislature, Henry Ramos Allup, accused the authorities of "sabotaging" the referendum.

The center-right opposition coalition behind the referendum push, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), has been racing to complete the bureaucratic obstacle course to call a vote by the end of the year.

Polls indicate Maduro would likely lose a recall referendum, but it must be held by January 10 in order to trigger new elections. After that date, his hand-picked vice president would serve out the rest of his term, to 2019.

That would extend the socialist "revolution" launched in 1999 by late president Hugo Chavez to at least 20 years.

The CNE has already said it is looking at late October for the three-day petition drive. The opposition says that is too late.

It alleges the electoral authorities are in bed with Maduro -- along with the Supreme Court, which has systematically blocked opposition bills since it won control of the legislature in December.11