CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s new opposition chief is targeting 2015 parliamentary elections as a springboard to end more than 15 years of socialist rule.
Given its huge oil reserves and relatively small population of 29 million, Venezuela should not have to tolerate its “catastrophic” economic performance, Jesus Torrealba, the newly named leader of the opposition coalition, said in an interview.
“Forgive me if it sounds pretentious, but I want to live with the quality of life they have in Norway – with a Venezuelan flavour,” he said, citing the Nordic country’s oil-funded development and commitment to social welfare. “A Caribbean Norway – it’s perfectly possible.”
After being outwitted for years by late socialist leader Hugo Chavez and then narrowly losing last year’s presidential vote to his hand-picked successor Nicolas Maduro, opposition parties’ next chance at the polls is a National Assembly election in late 2015.
In their favour, Maduro’s approval rating has fallen to about 35 per cent and a deepening economic crisis, ranging from chronic shortages of basic products to the highest inflation in the Americas, is causing widespread discontent.
Stacked against that are the equally bad ratings for opposition leaders and divisions inside the Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition over anti-Maduro protests earlier this year that sparked violence killing 43 people but did not dislodge him.
Into that fray has come Torrealba, a 56-year-old journalist, activist and teacher. A surprise choice as executive-secretary of the MUD, he is charged with uniting opposition factions and preparing them for the 2015 vote.
A Communist Party member in his youth, he is urging mass mobilisations in poor areas where Chavez is revered, but residents now feel the sharp end of the economic crisis. That work, he said, will bring electoral gains.
