Struggle looms as Venezuela opposition vows to fix crisis

Election officials in Venezuela say the opposition has won control of the country’s legislature, delivering a stunning defeat to the ruling Socialist party. The ruling socialist party won 46 seats. To reach a qualified majority of two-thirds, the opposition needs 112 deputies, which the opposition says they won according to their counts.

There was no confirmation of that from the election board, which had yet to announce the results of 22 legislative contests. In the plaza in wealthy eastern Caracas that was the epicenter of last year’s bloody anti-government protests, a small group of opponents, some of them sipping champagne, burned red shirts that are the obligatory revolutionary attire.

“Seeing these adverse results, we have come … to tell Venezuela that democracy has triumphed”. “I feel at peace with my conscience because everything we have done has been for the protection of the country”, Maduro said.

Even if Maduro elects to take those extensive measures, his government may have to seek billions in financial aid from multinational lenders or other countries in 2016, economist Jose Manuel Puente said, since the government has only about $2 billion remaining in liquid foreign reserves.

“Dialogue among all parties in Venezuela is necessary to address the social and economic challenges facing the country, and the United States stands ready to support such a dialogue together with others in the worldwide community”, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said. “The country wants change”, he said on social media.

The result is another blow to South America’s block of left leaning leaders, ushered in following Chavez’s rise to power.

Last month, Argentines rejected the chosen successor of President Cristina Fernandez, herself a close Chavez ally, turning instead to the relatively conservative mayor of Buenos Aires. But on Sunday night he softened his tone, urging his supporters to calmly regroup from the loss.

The government calls that lies and frequently recalls USA support for a short-lived 2002 coup against Chavez.

“Now everything will just get worse”.

But regional leaders praised Maduro for accepting defeat so quickly.

“I’ve only ever known one government”.

Voting was mostly peaceful, though fears of unrest prompted some Venezuelans to line up before dawn so they could cast their ballots and go home to wait for results.

Maduro, on the other hand, acknowledged the downfall of his party, but still promised to continue what the late Hugo Chavez started, and that was to build a “socialist” nation. In the capital, the opposition won by nearly 20 percentage points.

With its massive victory, the MUD could create a constituent assembly with a view to rewriting the constitution and pass an amnesty law to release opposition politicians jailed under Maduro’s administration.

Reining in Maduro, who became president after Chavez died in 2013, will be tough.