Several leaders of various opposition groups to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro have found themselves under an intensifying government crackdown as the economic crisis in Venezuela continues to worsen. Some of these opposition groups have banded together in Caracas for a planned protest on Thursday demanding a referendum vote for a recall of Maduro. It is widely believed that Maduro would lose a recall vote. He can’t let that happen, so he’s has accused opposition groups of mounting an attempted coup. Maduro’s Office of the Deputy Minister states, “It has become clear the brand and authorship of the coup d'etat planned for this coming Sept. 1, 2016 in Venezuela in complicity with the anti-democratic opposition and the international right.”

This is clearly an attempt by the socialist government of Maduro to paint his opposition as power hungry in order to deny the lawful right of Venezuelans to petition for a recall vote. Almost half of the opposition leaders have either been jailed, gone into hiding or exile. Maduro has also been closing off press access with one of the country’s few independent news organizations and the foreign press as well. And who does Maduro blame for his economic failures? Why the U.S. and the West of course. “The United States and most of Venezuela’s neighbors have responded to this collapse of a once prosperous oil-producing country by doing their best to ignore it.”

Now there’s news of a meeting between Maduro and Iran’s minister of foreign affairs, Mohammad Javad Zarif, as the two countries announced an alliance to stabilize oil prices. This is designed to both strength Maduro’s grip on power and poke the U.S. Unless the opposition is able to force a recall vote and oust Maduro, then things will only get worse for Venezuela. And if Maduro and the socialists are not turned out, then Venezuela could become a real problem for the U.S.

(Edited.)