last operating beer plant shut down last month

Venezuela's president ordered the country's main beer producer to reopen its breweries or risk being jailed for 'sabotaging the country'.

Food and beverage company Empresas Polar, which supplies 80 per cent of beer drunk in Venezuela, shut down its last operating plant in April.

In response. President Nicolas Maduro has now threatened to take over idle factories, saying that business owners who 'sabotage the country' by halting production, risk being 'put in handcuffs.'

Empresas Polar, which supplies 80 per cent of beer drunk in Venezuela, shut down its last brewery in April, forcing President Nicolas Maduro (pictured) to threaten to jail its owners unless they reopen

Speaking to supporters in the capital, Caracas, the president ordered 'all actions to recover the production apparatus, which is being paralyzed by the bourgeoisie.'

Empresas Polar has shut down beer production completely as of last month, saying government mismanagement meant it was no longer able to import barley.

Maduro accuses Polar and others of trying to destabilize the financially stricken country by exacerbating shortages of goods from foodstuffs to medicines to toilet paper.

Empresas Polar's four breweries normally supply 80 per cent of the domestic beer consumed in Venezuela.

The company's owner, billionaire businessman Lorenzo Mendoza, is a vocal opponent of Mr Maduro, and the president has accused him of being part of an "economic war" on his government along with US business interests.

People chant against the government during Saturday's march where they demanded that electoral officials accelerate the certification of the petition signatures that would kick off a recall of Maduro

A woman holds a sign with a message that reads: 'Maduro, leave already... you are a nightmare!'

A man shows a cardboard box crafted to depict an empty refrigerator to indicate the shortage of products, during an opposition march in Caracas, Venezuela this weekend

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles, center, is greeted by supporters during an opposition march in Caracas,

Meanwhile dueling anti- and pro-government crowds demonstrated in Caracas on Saturday for and against a bid to recall the president.

Maduro opponents demanded that the National Electoral Council rule on the validity of some 1.8 million signatures collected in favor of the referendum and allow it to move forward.

'If you obstruct the democratic way, we do not know what could happen in this country,' opposition leader Henrique Capriles said at one rally. 'Venezuela is a bomb that could explode at any moment.'

Across town, Maduro ally Jorge Rodriguez vowed there would be no recall referendum.

'They got signatures from dead people, minors and undocumented foreigners,' Rodriguez said.

Opposition leaders deny any fraud in the signature drive.

Friday's decree extended for 60 days Maduro's exceptional powers to address the crisis. Venezuela is suffering from multiple financial woes including rampant inflation and low prices for oil, the cornerstone of its economy.