Maduro Vows ‘Great Changes’ in Venezuela If Re-Elected

Date: 16 May 2018 - 20:45

News ID: ۵۳۰۱۴

CARACAS (Dispatches) -- Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro vowed to make "great changes” in the OPEC nation reeling from hyperinflation and shortages if re-elected this weekend.
"Venezuela needs big economic changes and we are going to do it ourselves,” Maduro said at a rally in the bedroom community of Charallave, south of Caracas, prior to Sunday’s poll which he is expected to win.
"If you give me your power on May 20, I swear ... to you with my life that I will dedicate myself to making all the economic changes that Venezuela needs for rebirth,” added Maduro, who danced and sang under the Caribbean sun.
The president blames a U.S.-led "economic war”, including recent sanctions on the financial sector by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, for hardships.
Maduro’s main rival in Sunday’s vote, former state Governor Henri Falcon, is proposing dollarizing the economy, reversing nationalizations, and opening Venezuela to immediate emergency foreign aid.
"Which would you prefer to have - two petros or two dollars?” he asked a crowd in a poor Caracas neighborhood at a rally on Monday night. He was referring to a new cryptocurrency project, which Maduro has pitched as crucial to bypassing U.S. sanctions on the South American country.
Maduro has accused Falcon of wanting to sell out the country — which has the world’s largest oil reserves — to "the gringos,” a derogatory term for the Americans.
He once threatened to "take up arms and lead a revolution” if a government comes into power that wants to hand the country’s "riches” to "imperialist” forces.
The oil-rich country, which has a quintuple-digit annual inflation rate, suffers from severe food and medicine shortages, the return of once-controlled diseases, and mass emigration.
Earlier, an independent economic expert calculated an unofficial inflation rate of almost 18,000% for Venezuela, exceeding a prediction by the International Monetary Fund of almost 14,000%.
Maduro accuses the opposition of being incited by the U.S. to topple his government.