Venezuela party proposes reform to oust Maduro

The leftist Radical Cause party said on Tuesday that it presented the proposal to cut short Maduro’s presidential mandate by two years and hold a general election by the end of 2016.
 
The party’s secretary Andres Velasquez said the proposal also includes reduction of presidential terms from six years to four with immediate effect.
 
"Venezuela is going through an extreme, irreversible crisis and those who brought us to these depths show no signs of fixing things," Velasquez said.
 
The Radical Cause party has four lawmakers in the 167-seat parliament, where the United Democratic Roundtable (MUD), a broad coalition dominated by big center-right parties, has a three-fifths majority.
 
"One thing that everyone agrees on is that Nicolas Maduro cannot continue at the head of the government because of the risk that poses to the stability of the country," Velasquez added.
 
Maduro’s mandate runs until 2019 but if the amendment is passed in the parliament he would have to leave office in April 2017.
 
The opposition United Democratic Roundtable won a victory over Maduro’s United Socialist Party in a December 2015 vote, and took control of the National Assembly for the first time since 1999, when former late president Hugo Chavez had risen to power.
 
Newly-elected National Assembly Speaker Henry Ramos Allup has said he would find a way to have Maduro ousted within six months.
 
The opposition accuses Maduro’s government of mismanaging the economy and leading the oil-rich country to poverty.
 
Caracas denies the accusations saying the US is behind the anti-government plots in the Latin American country.