Venezuela opposition vows to oust president this year

Venezuela's opposition vowed to drive President Nicolas Maduro from office this year, raising pressure on the socialist leader as he weathers a political crisis in the oil-rich nation.
Having rejected Maduro's bid to seize emergency powers over the crisis-hit economy, the opposition-led legislature revived calls to oust him.
"Someone said we should let the government finish its term so it can stew in its own juice. That would be irresponsible," the opposition speaker of congress, Henry Ramos Allup, told a gathering of foreign reporters yesterday.
Maduro's mandate runs until 2019, but the new opposition majority in the National Assembly has raised the prospect of his rivals finding constitutional or legislative means to cut his term short.

"I don't want this to last three more years, going from bad to worse," Ramos said.
"If you can treat an illness before it kills you, then you obviously apply the treatment."

He reiterated the opposition's aim to devise, by June at the latest, a legal way to oust Maduro.
"I don't know if it will happen by the end of this year... but the way things are going, I don't see him reaching the end of his constitutional term," Ramos said.
Amid a worsening recession, political deadlock seized Venezuela when the opposition majority took control of the assembly at the start of the month.

A series of tense institutional maneuvers followed as Maduro chipped away at the opposition's majority, which in turn blocked his plan to decree a state of economic emergency.
If Maduro stays in office with a grip on the economy, Ramos said his successor would inherit a "graveyard."
He spoke a day after another prominent opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, added his powerful voice to calls to oust Maduro.
Until Thursday, ex-presidential candidate Capriles had held a more moderate line, saying the priority should be fixing the economy.
But after weeks of growing turbulence, he hardened his stance, calling for a referendum or constitutional reform to get rid of the president.