Guaido renews call for Maduro to step down

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido renewed calls for President Nicolas Maduro to resign on Friday while campaigning in the birthplace of former leader Hugo Chavez, following inconclusive talks in Norway to end the country’s crisis.

West-backed Guaido has been leading a push to oust leftist firebrand Maduro, who has presided over a crumbling economy after succeeding Chavez in 2013.

During a brief speech before a handful of followers in the small town of Sabaneta, Guaido called for a “large mobilization” of protesters to rally against the government over shortages of gasoline and prolonged blackouts in the country.

Sabaneta has been turned into a shrine for the hugely popular Chavez, who mixed a larger-than-life personality with a man-of-the-people style and generously-funded social programs through oil revenues.

But Maduro struggled to fill his mentor’s shoes and he quickly lost favor after a fall in oil prices in 2014 precipitated a massive economic crisis.