Rival protests hit streets in Venezuela's capital

(Vatican Radio)  Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the street of Venezuela's capital, Caracas, rallying for and against the government of President Nicolas Maduro. 

Listen to James Blears' report:

The opposition coalition claims that more than a million people many clad in white, jammed the streets of Caracas, calling for a referendum about President Nicolas Maduro's future. 

But many pro-Maduro supporters in crimson shirts and caps were mobilized to counteract this.  The two diametrically opposed factions, with bitterness and division simmering, had to be kept at appreciably more than arms' length apart by riot police.

Everyone should be trying to avoid the ugly and violent anti government demonstrations of 2014, which killed 43 people and injured more than 800.

The opposition plans to protest outside electoral authority offices on September 7th  and a nationwide mobilization day seven days later.

As the international price of oil plummeted so did Venezuela's fortunes, and now the threadbare situation is in the grip of hyper inflation which will be running at more than 700 percent, by year end, unless its curbed and stemmed.

January 10th is the four-year mark of Nicolas Maduro's presidency. 

If no referendum is held by then, even if the vote goes against him, his Vice President would complete the administration's full term, which ends in 2019.

The opposition is determined to gain the opportunity to secure that vote.