Venezuela President, Nicolas Maduro

Venezuelan and US officials have been trading barbs after Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro said that some opposition parties would be banned from next year’s presidential election.

The US state department said it was “an extreme measure” designed to consolidate President Maduro’s power.

Elected in 2013, Mr Maduro is expected to run for a second term in 2018.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza called the US statement “ridiculous”.

The spat between the two countries, which have been at loggerheads for years, was triggered by the announcement on Sunday by President Maduro.

Speaking after he had cast his vote in municipal elections on Sunday, Mr Maduro said that the parties which had boycotted those polls would be banned from the presidential election next year.

“They cannot take part. They will disappear from the political map,” he said.

“Parties which did not participate today and called for a boycott of the elections can’t take part [in elections] any longer. That’s the criterion that the constituent assembly set out constitutionally and legally and I, as head of state (…), support them,” President Maduro said referring to the assembly which he convened earlier this year and which is exclusively made up of government supporters.

The opposition parties affected by the move are Justice First, Popular Will and A New Era, all three of which boycotted the municipal polls because they said they would be neither free nor fair.

US state department spokeswoman Heather Nauert was scathing in her reaction to Mr Maduro’s announcement.

(BBC)