CARACAS: Less than two years after succeeding Venezuela's late leader Hugo Chavez, President Nicolas Maduro has struggled to replicate his mentor's popularity amid a deepening economic crisis.
With his approval rating plummeting, Maduro announced late Tuesday that he was replacing the head of state oil giant PDVSA, Rafael Ramirez, and relieved him of his role as vice president for economic policy.
But the socialist leader fell short of announcing much-awaited measures to revive an economy beset by the highest inflation in Latin America and drastic shortages of basic goods.
Maduro was handpicked by the popular Chavez to continue his socialist revolution and narrowly won elections against opposition leader Henrique Capriles in April 2013, one month after his predecessor's death from cancer.
While Maduro overcame opposition protests earlier this year, only 35 percent of Venezuelans approved of his performance in July, a 15-point drop from 16 months ago, according to a survey by the polling firm Datanalisis.
Another pollster, Hinterlaces, said that Maduro's approval rating had fallen to 39 percent in August, an 18-point drop from just nine months ago.
"There is a direct correlation between the perception of the economic crisis and the falling popularity of Maduro, not just for what he has done but for what he has not done, like resolving inflation and shortages," Datanalisis president Luis Vicente Leon told AFP.
"People's perception is that the government is lost," said Leon, whose firm talked to 1,298 people at their homes between July 10-26.
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