Venezuela opposition claims enough signatures to launch recall of Maduro

Venezuelans wait in line to validate their signatures on petitions requesting a referendum to recall President Nicolas Maduro. EFE

The leader of the campaign to recall Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro

 said Friday that the opposition has validated more than twice the number of 

signatures needed to initiate the process of convening a referendum.

"In total, despite all those obstacles, of everything that happened, of all the

 people who were left out, of all who were excluded ... despite everything,

 409,313 patriotic Venezuelans managed to validate their signatures,

" two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said.

Capriles detailed the figures with the head of the MUD opposition alliance

 at the conclusion of the five days the group was given by electoral authorities 

to validate the signatures.

Once the process of signature validation is finalized, the MUD still needs to

 get support from 20 percent of registered voters - some 4 million people - to 

activate the referendum aimed at ousting Maduro