Venezuela enters critical stage in political crisis

Caracas (AFP) - Venezuela braced Monday for more upheaval as President Nicolas Maduro prepared to unveil the scope of a new emergency decree and the opposition readied protests against what it calls a bid to cling to power.

The leftist leader has so far given few details on the state of emergency he declared Friday, beyond vowing to seize factories he claims have been paralyzed by the "bourgeoisie" in order to exacerbate the shortages destabilizing the country.

Supermarket and pharmacy shelves have gone increasingly bare in recent months as the oil-dependent economy has imploded, reducing Venezuelans to standing in line for hours to buy groceries.

An electricity crisis and drought have added to the chaos, forcing Maduro's government to decree daily power cuts across most of the country, close schools on Fridays and cut government employees' workweek to two days in a bid to save power.

Maduro was due to publish the decree explaining the emergency order Monday. Legal experts have said it could impose limits on protests, authorize preventive arrests and allow warrantless police raids.

The opposition is meanwhile organizing mass protests for Wednesday demanding the authorities allow them to call a referendum on removing Maduro f-rom office, in line with the constitution.

Police and soldiers used tear gas to break up similar protests last week.

"The opposition knows protests are the only mechanism to increase pressure (on Maduro), and the government needs to stop that trend," political analyst Benigno Alarcon told AFP.

- Weekend military exercises -

Maduro said the state of emergency would initially apply for three months, but that he would likely extend it through 2017.

The company seizures could notably affect the Polar group, Venezuela's biggest food and beverage company, which halted beer production on April 30, saying it had run out of barley.

Venezuelan businesses say they are currently operating at less than 45 percent capacity because the government will not allow them to buy increasingly scarce dollars to pay their foreign suppliers.

One-fourth of all industrial firms are at risk of being seized, according to opposition lawmaker Jose Guerra.

Maduro has also ordered military exercises for Saturday to prepare for what he calls the threat of an armed intervention backed by the United States at the behest of the "fascist Venezuelan right."

Maduro, the hand-picked successor of the late Hugo Chavez, has presided over a collapse of Venezuela's economy since he took c-harge in 2013.

The global plunge in oil prices, three years of recession, inflation projected to rise to as much as 700 percent this year, shortages, crime, looting and water and electricity rationing have all fueled public anger against the 53-year-old president.

Seven in 10 Venezuelans want a change in government, and 97 percent say their lives have gotten worse, according to recent polls.

- Gearing up for protests -

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who narrowly lost the 2013 presidential election to Maduro, has warned the country is "a bomb that could explode any minute."

The opposition says it has collected 1.8 million signatures backing a referendum to remove Maduro f-rom power.

But the vote must be held by the end of the year to trigger new elections. After January 10 -- four years into Maduro's six-year term -- a successful recall vote would simply transfer power to his hand-picked vice president, Aristobulo Isturiz.

Isturiz said Sunday there would not even be a vote because of the opposition's alleged irregularities in collecting signatures.

"There will be no referendum here," he said, warning the opposition not to use the legislative majority it won in elections last year to try to oust Maduro, either.

"They'll have to kill us all before they can deliver a legislative coup," he said.

The opposition will put the state of emergency rules to the test Wednesday, when they plan to hold mass nationwide protest marches to the offices of the National Electoral Board demanding that they meet deadlines to hold a recall vote this year.