Venezuelan President Maduro threatens factory takeovers as crisis deepens

The political and economic crisis hitting Venezuela has deepened, with the country's opposition vowing to press on with efforts to remove leftist President Nicolas Maduro. Mr Maduro has declared a state of emergency and threatened to seize factories, to counter what he says is a foreign plot to subvert his rule.

Source: AAP

Venezuela's socialist economy is flailing and unrest on the streets, growing. This is a country in crisis, hit by food and medicine shortages, triple-digit inflation, annihilated salaries and rampant crime.

Anti-government protests are on the rise and a key poll shows nearly 70 per cent of Venezuelans want President Nicolas Maduro to go.

The opposition says a state of emergency declared by the president on Friday is an act of desperation. It has  vowed to push on with efforts to have him removed from office.

"If you (the government) block the democratic route, we don't know what could happen in this country," Henrique Capriles, Venezuela's opposition leader, told a crowd of supporters in the capital, Caracas, over the weekend. "Venezuela is a bomb that could explode at any moment. We don't want the bomb to explode and, because of that, we call on everyone to mobilize in favour of a recall referendum in 2016."

World's largest oil reserves

Venezuela has the world's largest oil reserves and weak oil prices are dragging down its economy. Business leaders say industry is operating at less than half its capacity and they blame the government's handling of the economy.

Countless factories around the country stand idle as production slows and looting grows, as attested to by Richard Higuera, a farming producer and businessman in the small rural town of Zaraza.

"(Looters) began to dismantle everything. It looked like a barbaric act and the authorities, both civilian and military, practically did nothing in time to finish the looting," he says.

But the government is blaming big business, which it says is waging an economic war against it. Speaking to his supporters in the capital, President Maduro threatened to take over idled factories and jail their owners.

"Comrades, I am ready to hand over to communal power the factories that some conservative big wigs in this country stopped. An idled factory is a factory handed over to the people," he said.

But it remains to be seen how the 60-day state of emergency or the factory takeovers could be implemented legally.

They would first need to pass through Venezuela's opposition-controlled National Assembly.

The president is also pointing the finger at so-called foreign threats - namely the United States.

He has ordered military exercises to counter what he says are elitist troublemakers, fomenting violence to justify a foreign invasion.