VENEZUELA’S communists have backed President Nicolas Maduro’s re-election in April, vowing to “support the revolutionary process even with our lives.”

Communist Party (PCV) general secretary Oscar Figuera said the country needed “unity before the onslaught of North American imperialism against our nation.”

The “only way out of the capitalist crisis is socialism,” he stressed, while warning that this was “not the same as saying we are in socialism.”