Fresh protests press President Nicolas Maduro in tense Venezuela crisis

Thousands of Venezuelans staged rival demonstrations for and against President Nicolas Maduro in a new test of strength as the opposition pushes for a vote on driving him from power.

A week after a mass protest in the capital Caracas, Maduro opponents yesterday rallied near offices of the electoral authorities nationwide, demanding a recall referendum in the crisis-stricken country by the end of the year.

The leftist leader's supporters held rallies of their own nearby, but the rival demos -- far smaller than last week's -- went off with no reports of major clashes.

Oil giant Venezuela's once-booming economy has gone into meltdown as crude prices have crashed since mid-2014.

Outrage is mounting over shortages of food and medicine, threatening Maduro and the socialist "revolution" his late predecessor, Hugo Chavez, launched in 1999.

"We have to do something. Voting and peaceful protest are the only weapons we have," said Rosmina Castillo, 52, demonstrating against Maduro in the town of Los Teques, just southwest of the capital.

She was among a crowd of some 1,500 opposition protesters who gathered a block away from roughly the same number of Maduro supporters. A metal barrier and lines of police kept them apart.

"We're here defending the revolution against an attack by this unpatriotic right," said state oil company employee Alexander Rangel at a pro-government demo in Caracas.

The protests' target, the electoral authorities' 24 regional offices, were closed and tightly guarded by police.

Maduro accuses his opponents of plotting protest violence in a bid to oust him.

"No one will bring fascist violence to Venezuela, nor coup-mongering, nor hate," he told a crowd of supporters Wednesday.

The center-right opposition, for its part, accuses the government of waging an authoritarian crackdown.

Dozens of protesters were arrested in the aftermath of last Thursday's rally, human rights groups say.

The opposition says around one million people flooded the streets of Caracas that day, the biggest protest in decades. Maduro put the turnout at a maximum of 30,000 people.

But the massive crowds, dressed in white and venting months of pent-up anger, gave the opposition new momentum.

"The opposition's roadmap is to try to keep people participating," political analyst Luis Vicente Leon said. "The challenge is to stay active and peaceful in the street while pushing a referendum.