GETTY Election: Venezuelan citizens cross the Simon Bolivar international bridge

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Ahead of next week’s election, Mr Maduro has once again asserted his determination to win the “economic war” which has plunged more than 90 percent of citizens in his once-wealthy country into abject poverty. The unpopular president is seeking a second term in office despite an economic and social explosion in the oil-rich country. Global markets face a lose-lose situation with a likely Mr Maduro victory presenting the leader with a mandate for his failing regime, but a loss to opposition leader Henri Falcón could spark civil war. Mr Maduro said last week in Vargas that if a government handed Venezuela’s “riches” to the “imperialist gringos”, he would “be the first one to raise the alarm, grab a gun and start an armed revolution with the people, if necessary.” Despite millions suffering from empty food shops and medicine shortages, Mr Maduro is expected to win in next week’s vote due to widespread abstention. The primary opposition parties are boycotting the election, calling it a sham. President Maduro told a Socialist Party event yesterday: “If you hand me victory on May 20, I swear I will end the economic war.”

GETTY Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution

If you hand me victory on May 20, I swear I will end the economic war. President Maduro

The “economic war” in Venezuela is now at the apex of a socioeconomic and political crisis that Venezuela has undergone since Hugo Chávez's tenure. Between 2013 and 2017, the oil-rich nation’s gross domestic product contracted more aggressively that the economies of the US during the Great Depression, and the fall of Communism in Russia, Cuba, and Albania. During 2016 the scarcity of food and basic goods led to an approximate 800 percent rise in consumer goods, while job losses and a fall in industrial output shrank the economy by over 18 percent. According to study published on 2018 by three Venezualan universities, almost 90 percent of the Venezuelan population now lives in poverty and as the economic downturn bites, the murder rate of 90 per 100,000 people, remains on the rise according to the Observatory of Venezuelan Violence. However, the President has told his critics, “you’ll get your comeuppance in a week’s time,” he told supporters yesterday after accusing the business community of raising prices in recent days in order to create more discontent among voters. Although data on the country’s plight is strangled by the ruling party, the opposition National Assembly estimates that annual inflation is currently at more than 13,000 percent in the year to April. Critics blame strict price and currency controls for the mess.

GETTY ELECTION: Nicolás Maduro President of Venezuela