Venezuela to sack officials who backed Maduro recall

Venezuelan civil servants who signed a petition for a referendum on removing President Nicolas Maduro from power must be sacked within 48 hours, a top aide to the president said.

Five ministries have been given lists of employees in managerial posts who signed the petition in favor of a recall vote against Maduro, said Jorge Rodriguez, the embattled leftist leader’s designated aide to monitor the opposition’s referendum drive.

“They have 48 hours to see to it that these people who are in socalled positions of responsibility — managerial jobs — get a different professional destiny,” he told a news conference on Monday evening.

Those who signed the petition had “publicly expressed their closeness to the Venezuelan right” and had no place in Maduro’s government, Rodriguez said.

“People who are against President Nicolas Maduro’s revolution cannot be in management positions ... in ministries, public institutions, or state or local governments,” he added.

The lists of signatories were distributed to the food, finance, labor and basic industries ministries and the presidential office, he said.