Venezuela opposition leader fears vote will be scrapped

Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles says he fears President Nicolas Maduro's crisis-hit government, fearing a humiliating loss, will cancel key legislative elections later this year. With Venezuela's economy in recession, its oil revenues plunging and consumers facing chronic shortages of basic goods, Maduro's approval rating has sunk to a low of around 20 percent -- the worst crisis yet for the political movement founded by his late mentor, leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez. That has fed optimism among the divided opposition that it can win control of the National Assembly at elections due this year, for which a date has not yet been set. But Capriles -- who narrowly lost the 2013 presidential vote to Maduro after Chavez's death -- said the government would rather provoke the opposition into violence than face it at the polls. More…