Caracas: Venezuela's legislature voted Thursday to sack the government's food minister for the grave shortages citizens are suffering in the country's economic crisis.
The speaker of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, Henry Ramos Allup, said the government must "proceed to remove" Food Minister Rodolfo Marco Torres from his post after more than two-thirds of the lawmakers present approved a no-confidence motion against him.
Ramos said that under the constitution a minister subject to a successful no-confidence vote is obliged to step down.
The leader of the pro-government bloc in the assembly, Hector Rodriguez, said, however, that the motion was not valid. He said the vote breached a recent ruling by the Supreme Court on debating procedures.
President Nicolas Maduro has blocked various recent bills brought by the opposition by challenging them in the Supreme Court, which his critics say he controls.
The opposition has been pushing to drive Maduro from office since it took control of the legislature in January, blaming his economic management for the crisis.
In the debate ahead of the no-confidence vote, opposition lawmakers said Torres was to blame for shortages of basic foods which have Venezuelans queuing up for rations at shops.
They alleged corruption linked to food imports and the "destruction" of Venezuela's production capacity.
"We are facing the worst food emergency in Venezuela's history," said the lawmaker leading the motion, Ismael Garcia. He said the crisis was due to the "failure of an economic model which has ruined the country."
Maduro blames the situation on an "economic war" against the country by capitalists.
His opponents said earlier Thursday they had gathered more than triple the number of signatures needed to begin organizing a referendum to remove him from power.
Once a booming oil giant, Venezuela has descended into economic chaos in tandem with the collapse in global crude prices, threatening Maduro and the socialist "revolution" launched by his late predecessor Hugo Chavez in 1999.
Exacerbating the situation, an electricity shortage has forced Maduro to slash the workweek to two days for state employees, close schools on Fridays and ration power for four hours a day in much of the country.
AFP
