Late Hugo Chavez Dominates Venezuela Snap Election

By ⋅ March 11, 2013 ⋅ Post a comment
Capriles, Venezuela's opposition leader and governor of Miranda state, addresses the media in Caracas. (Photo: Capriles campaign)

Capriles, Venezuela's opposition leader and governor of Miranda state, addresses the media in Caracas. (Photo: Capriles campaign)

Last week, Venezuela bid farewell to President Hugo Chavez, who died of cancer. This week, they’re gearing up for a snap election, on April 14, to replace him.

The vote will pit opposition leader Henrique Capriles against Nicolas Maduro, a former bus driver, union leader and foreign minister, who Chavez named as vice president. He was sworn in on Friday to serve as interim leader.

The winner will finish the six-year term that Chavez won in October, at a time when he was insisting he was cancer-free.

Even though Chavez isn’t technically in the running this time, he’s the dominant presence.

At a boisterous rally in Caracas on Sunday, Maduro warned that a Capriles victory would slam the brakes on Chavez’s socialist revolution. He promised to faithfully carry the Chavez torch into next month’s election.

Maduro lacks the bombast and charisma of Chavez, and in normal circumstances, he would be vulnerable to a challenge. Despite vast oil wealth, Venezuela is facing food shortages, a devalued currency and one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

Yet Maduro is considered the heavy favorite. Flush with petrodollars, the government can outspend the opposition during the short campaign. It also controls the main TV stations, and they’re filled with emotional tributes to Chavez.

What’s more, the government is drawing out the mourning process. Chavez’s funeral was on Friday, but his body is still on display at a military chapel. Huge lines form every day and have become a rallying point for Chavistas.

Venezuela's Vice President Nicolas Maduro speaks to thousands of supporters of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez in Caracas. (Photo: Jorge Silva/Reuters)

Venezuela’s Vice President Nicolas Maduro speaks to thousands of supporters of Venezuela’s late President Hugo Chavez in Caracas. (Photo: Jorge Silva/Reuters)

All of this is designed to drum up a huge sympathy vote for Maduro. And it puts Capriles in a bind, since criticizing Maduro might seem like an attack on Chavez. Indeed, the playing field seems so slanted that there was speculation that Capriles might sit out next month’s vote.

But the opposition has learned from past mistakes. In 2005, it boycotted legislative elections, which turned Venezuela’s National Assembly into a rubber stamp for Chavez allowing him to consolidate his power.

On Sunday, Capriles announced he would run for president, even though back-to-back losses might destroy his political career. He lost to Chavez back in October.

“As one person said today, ‘Capriles, they are taking you to a slaughterhouse. You going to be lowered into its meat grinder.’” Capriles said. “But how am I not going to fight? How are we not going to fight?”

This super-abbreviated campaign will likely be far more intense and negative than last year’s race when Capriles tried to maintain an upbeat tone. The fireworks have already started.

On Sunday, Capriles accused Maduro of hiding behind Chavez’s dead body, saying he lacks the courage to campaign on his own merits. For his part, Maduro called Capriles a “fascist” who was insulting the “crystalline, pure image of Comandante Chavez.”

Discussion

2 comments for “Late Hugo Chavez Dominates Venezuela Snap Election”

  • mattlove1

    I truly hope for your sakes that you aren’t as stupid as you pretend to be. How long did they keep the corpse of that ghoul Reagan around, dragging it here and there to benefit the conservative movement?  Chavez was for the poor, not the rich. When we’re out eating grass in the fields in the US and Britain, and Venezuela is one of the new superpowers, we’ll regret our regressive politics and policies.  We’ll be hoping Venezuela will still send us some of that free heating oil….

    • Steven Rogers

       Eating grass in the fields?  Venezuela has to import 2/3 of its food supply, mostly from the evil gringo, so have a guess at who’s likely to be eating grass in the fields.  A true triumph of socialist agriculture.  Add in 20% inflation, a bigger budget deficit than the US, declining oil production, increasing oil consumption etc, etc, ad infinitum and the Presidency of Venezuela may be the worst job in the world.  Hugo will be remembered as a hero, but whoever is in the chair when Hugo’s chickens come home to roost is likely to end up hanging from a lamp-post.