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VENEZUELANS FLOCKED TO the polls today to pick Hugo Chavez’s successor, choosing between the handpicked heir of his socialist revolution and an opponent vowing change in the divided nation.
After a brief and bitter campaign, supporters of acting President Nicolas Maduro played military-style bugles to wake up people before dawn to vote in an election pitting him against opposition rival Henrique Capriles.
Casting himself as his mentor’s “son,” Maduro led opinion polls to complete his six-year term, promising to continue oil-funded policies that cut poverty from 50 to 29 per cent with popular health, education and food programs.
But Capriles hopes that discontent over the nation’s soaring murder rate, chronic food shortages, high inflation and regular power outages will give him an upset victory after 14 years under Chavez.
“Chavez, I swear, my vote is for Maduro!”
Before dying, the late leader endorsed Maduro as his successor, and Chavistas chanted “Chavez, I swear, my vote is for Maduro!” throughout the campaign.
Maduro, meanwhile, sought to elevate Chavez as a saint-like figure, calling him “Christ the redeemer of the poor.”
From the Amazon region to the Caribbean coast and the capital’s hillside slums, voters cast ballots to decide the future of a nation sitting on the world’s biggest proven oil reserve.
People stood in line outside the school where Chavez used to vote in the poor January 23 neighborhood. A truck nearby played a recording of the late leader crooning to a patriotic song.
“The commitment to the revolution is very strong,” said Denis Oropeza, 33, a museum employee voting there as the truck played a recording of Chavez, made before cancer took his life, in which he asks Venezuelans to vote for Maduro.
“The people will massively go out and vote to defend his legacy,” Oropeza declared.
Later, two of Chavez’s daughters, Maria Gabriela and Rosa Virginia, who is married to Vice President Jorge Arreaza, voted at the school and were applauded by the crowd. People chanted “Chavez lives! The struggle goes on!”
But in the eastern Caracas neighborhood known as a Capriles bastion, voters said they were fed up with violence that left 16,000 people dead last year and a weak economy that has people struggling to find butter and milk in grocery stores.
“I want change because the situation is not good. There’s no security, the country is divided in two,” said Pietro Bellacicco, 75, a retired agricultural worker. “I hope to see us united, all together again as Venezuelans.”
The opposition urged voters to watch for any “irregularities” in polling stations.
Former bus driver
Chavez named Maduro – a former bus driver and union activist who rose to foreign minister and vice president — as his political heir in December before undergoing a final round of cancer surgery. He died on March 5 aged 58.
“We will break turnout records in our mobilized democracy,” Maduro wrote on Twitter.
Maduro rode a wave of grief over Chavez’s death throughout the campaign, culminating the day before the vote with a ceremony honoring the former colonel in the military barracks where he was laid rest.
Capriles accused the government of “abusing power, abusing state resources” by staging televised events up until the eve of the election even though official campaigning ended on Thursday.
“Let’s go vote! Hope, faith and courage,” Capriles wrote on Twitter.
Maduro and Capriles engaged in an acrimonious campaign marked by insults, government allegations of assassination plots against the acting leader and the virtual beatification of Chavez.
Maduro called his rival a “little bourgeois” while Capriles derided the tall, broad-shouldered acting president as a “bull-chicken.”
Capriles avoided criticizing Chavez, however, pledging to maintain his social “missions.” He lost to Chavez by 11 points in the October 7 presidential election – the opposition’s best ever showing against him.
“I’m not the opposition, I’m the solution,” said the 40-year-old Miranda state governor, who represents the youthful face of the once fractured opposition.
But he blamed the government for the nation’s economic woes and vowed to cut the “gift” to Cuba – a deal in which Caracas ships 100,000 barrels of oil per day while Havana sends doctors and other experts to Venezuela.
(Venezuelan Mariangel Rosa, 5, flashes a heart symbol to journalists as she walks to the Venezuelan consulate in Havana, Cuba, today – Pic: Franklin Reyes/AP/Press Association Images)
Opinion polls gave Maduro a lead of 10-20 points, though the last survey conducted by Datanalisis last week gave him a narrower, 9.7 point edge. The winner will be sworn in on Friday.
“The opposition was able to excite its people,” Ignacio Avalos, a sociology professor at Central University of Venezuela. “Maduro has two very important weapons in his favor: Chavez’s last wish and the state machinery.”
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Mmm if its a dictatorship then how come nearly 19million people will vote and of those close to 200,000 will be postal votes from expats who are in their majority anti chavezistas and there vote will be counted, it must be a democratic dictatorship,
“Chavez named Maduro as his heir”
Naming heirs, what system of government does that come from?
He’s not going to inherit the job, he’s going to run in a democratic election. Jimmy Carter described the previous one as the fairest in the world.
The same one Sean, that rallies the troops around to get an inexperienced lady elected to the Dáil in Meath East based on parish politics. No difference.
Funny how most political stories about Chavez or other non western countries are from AFP(ropaganda)
What’s wrong with the facts?
Facts? Watch ‘The revolution will not be televised’, made by Irish filmakers, and you’ll see how the ‘facts’ are conjured up.
Amazing documentary. I try to get people to check it out every time Chavez/Venezuela is brought up in conversation. I think I’m due a watch of it myself now actually. Inspiring stuff!!
South of the border. Netflix. Watch it. Now. Shaw.
That was a brilliant film! It won an award! Everyone who hasn’t seen it really should before passing comment.
Just finished watching South of the border, great film.
Outrageously biased article
How so?
Did you read it?
Yes seemed factual to me.
The article is written almost exclusively form the opposition leaders view point. The verb ‘crooning’ is used to describe actions of Chavez. Compare this verb to the positive ones in twitter statement of Capriles “Let’s go vote! Hope, faith and courage,” Maduro is also accused of ‘riding a wave of grief’ over Chavez’s death.
“The opposition was able to excite its people,” Ignacio Avalos, a sociology professor at Central University of Venezuela. “Maduro has two very important weapons in his favor: Chavez’s last wish and the state machinery.”
Compare the sentiment of the of the of the professor to Capriles’ candidacy compared with Maduro’s. It is obvious he is pro Maduro but why is his opinion relative? Similarly a negative opinion of Maduro is expressed by an agricultural worker further up in the piece. Why were quotes from these people included and none from people who are pro Maduro?
The piece also points out the ‘Chronic food shortages’ in the country but provides no evidence that there is in fact chronic food shortages.
These are a couple of examples of the bias in this article but there are plenty more if you look for them.
No idea why this rubbish was published on here.
The opposition urged voters to watch for any “irregularities” in polling stations.
This also jumped out at me. As Val pointed out in a comment below Jimmy Carters foundation has observed close on 100 cases where Venezuelans have went to the ballot and have called it the fairest system of democracy in the world and completely impossible to rig.
The above is included to suggest there will be election rigging.
“I’m not the opposition, I’m the solution,” said the 40-year-old Miranda state governor, who represents the youthful face of the once fractured opposition.
Capriles is painted a someone who unites while the Venezuala is ‘divided’ (Chavez’s fault of course, and a claim you could make about any country in the world).
In short the whole thing is an abomination!
It was published because it happened. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t make it any less factual.
Hahaha, what happened? This is not a news story. News stories contain facts. This article is a political broadcast. ah never mind, look up confirmation bias on wikipedia. You might learn something
Are you saying none of the above happened and its all a fabrication? Are you in Venezuela to confirm all of the above is false?
And do you really think so little of the people of Venezuela that one article by AFP in English is going to help them decide how they were going to vote? Rather condescending wouldn’t you say.
Yeah you’re right the media has no effect on anything. Goodnight
Like I said. The article is in the English language. Now as far as I am aware Venezuela is a Spanish speaking country. So unless there are a lot of English speaking undecided Venezuelans out there it’s not going to make a big impact now is it. Now you reckon that the article is unfair. Why. Because it doesn’t show Maduro as some sort of New Messiah following in the foot steps of Chaves. It basically said that the Chavistas were blowing bugles and playing a tape of Chaves singing and that electionering was supposed to have finished on Thursday but that the ruling party seemed to ignore that. What’s not factual about that?
Exactly John, more rubbish from AFP, they never liked Chavez because they didn’t like his politics, but his people loved him.
Mick, if you are concerned with human rights abuses in the region you should be concerned about Colombia. Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world for union members and is one of the united nations top 20 countries of concern. They are also a western friendly regime, so we would have more influence. Obama agreed to build 5 new military bases there. The E.U also has a free trade deal with them.
http://www.hrw.org/americas/colombia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Colombia
What has Columbia got to do with the discussion? It’s about whether the article is factual or as John and the rest of you are arguing a work of you “biased fiction”. And as yet nobody has been able to say its inaccurate. The anti Chaves part only comes from quotes from the opposition. But you lot seem would seem to prefer only to hear from the Chavistas and want the press to ignore the main opposition candidate.
You seem to think that Venezuela is an oppressive dictatorship. The real human rights violator is their neighbour. It’s a regime that we in the west should be more concerned about because we have more influence there. The media doesn’t ignore opposition, the media is 90 % privately owned and support him.
Mick you do know you can write a biased piece based on facts right? It’s how you portray the facts that creates bias.
Again this discussion is about AFP not about what I think but what was written. The claim was the article was biased and unfair yet it gave quotes from both sides. How is that unfair and biased?
100,000 barrels of oil a day. Lets just say oil is $100 a barrel. That’s $10 million dollars a day. That’s $3.5 billion a year. Cuba then sends doctors and advisors?!
Would it not be cheaper to hire doctors?
I… I think they still pay the doctors. Cuba just trains a lot of them.
Ah ha the same two people on every Venezuela topic spouting the same ould anti Chavez lies. No time for trolls myself. Best of luck to Venezuela, I hope it can continue the revolution.
Mic. What lies? Please point them out to us.
Aren’t they using the E-voting machines, for this election?
The Venezuelan system uses E-voting machines and the paper ballot. Jimmy Carters foundation has observed close on 100 cases where Venezuelans have went to the ballot and have called it the fairest system of democracy in the world and completely impossible to rig. Would make ya wonder if we could actually end up finding a use for all the ones we have lying around the place.
Viva la revolucion bolivariana
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