Maduro and Capriles: tale of two Venezuelan presidential candidates

Posted on Sunday, 04.07.13

Venezuela elections | NEWS ANALYSIS

Maduro and Capriles: tale of two Venezuelan presidential candidates
BY JIM WYSS
jwyss@MiamiHerald.com

BOGOTA -- One is a former union organizer and foreign minister who
skipped university to pursue politics. He rose to fame as the loyal
soldier of late President Hugo Chávez. The other is a governor and
lawyer who spent four months in jail. He prides himself on defeating
every rival he has ever faced except one: Chávez.

As Venezuela barrels toward snap elections Sunday, one of these two men
— Nicolás Maduro and Henrique Capriles — will be the first to occupy the
seat Chávez owned for 14 years.

When the socialist firebrand died March 5 after an 18-month battle with
cancer, he left a nation in mourning, but also facing shortages, soaring
inflation and addicted to social projects that some fear are
unsustainable. Rich in oil, Venezuela is also saddled with one of the
highest homicide rates in the world.

"This country is a tinderbox," said María Teresa Romero, a political
science professor at Venezuela's Central University. "Whoever wins the
presidency is going to have to deal with it."

Polls from last month show Maduro, 50, with a strong lead as he rides
the wave of sympathy generated by Chávez's death. On the campaign trail,
he has vowed to continue his boss's socialist polices and defend his
popular "missions," including subsidized housing, free healthcare and
education.

But Capriles, 40, has been drawing large crowds — even in Chávez
strongholds — and claims that internal polls put him in the lead. In
October, Capriles lost to Chávez by 11 points, but it was the best
showing ever against the popular president.

"Chávez was an electoral giant and Capriles is the only person who has
ever been able to take on that monster and even make him fear that he
might lose," said Oswaldo Ramírez with the ORC political consulting
group. "Nicolás Maduro is no Hugo Chávez."

CHANNELING CHAVEZ

On the trail, Maduro has been channeling his boss, railing against the
"oligarchy" and Yankee imperialism.

The opposition "is obsessed with destroying the revolution that Chávez
built, with destroying democracy," Maduro said recently. "Now they are
trying to destroy us also so that we cannot fulfill our pledge...to keep
protecting the people."

Just hours before announcing Chávez's death, Maduro expelled two U.S.
diplomats he said were conspiring with the military. He's also accused
two former U.S. officials of plotting to murder Capriles in hopes of
creating chaos.

But some expect the aggressive posturing to dissipate after the elections.

United States Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., has known Maduro for 14 years
and describes him as an affable bridge-builder who likes to play softball.

"I think he understands and realizes, as we do, that Venezuela is
important to all of Latin America and important to the United States,"
said Meeks, who was part of the small U.S. delegation that attended
Chávez's funeral. "I think it helps our entire hemisphere if the U.S.
and Venezuela have better relations."

The two countries have not had ambassadors since 2010, but the U.S.
State Department said it held conversations with Maduro in November to
explore renewing relations. But those efforts seem to have stalled.

"Campaigns are campaigns," Meeks said of Maduro's anti-U.S. rhetoric.
"In my brief conversation with him [at the funeral], he was very open to
the idea of better ties."

Charles Shapiro, the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela from 2002-2004,
disputes that view. He recalls when then-legislator Maduro created a
stir by passing around a video he claimed showed the regional CIA chief
arriving in Venezuela. It turned out to be a U.S. business executive
interested in buying a paper company, Shapiro said.

"My sense is that Maduro is deeply suspicious of the United States, of
capitalism and of the international democratic community," Shapiro said.
"The idea that he would be a pragmatist would surprise me."

Maduro was born in Caracas in 1962 to a Colombian mother. More
interested in activism than the classroom, he left college without a
degree and worked as a bodyguard and bus driver before becoming a union
organizer for the Caracas Metro system. His political path ultimately
led him to Chávez, the young military officer who tried to overthrow
President Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1992. That's where Maduro also met his
longtime partner Cilia Flores, who is also the attorney general.

When Chávez won the presidency in 1998, Maduro was by his side and went
on to help rewrite the constitution and eventually become the head of
the National Assembly. But he became an international figure in 2006,
when Chávez tapped him to be foreign minister. There, Maduro helped
oversee the creation of regional blocs designed to mitigate U.S.
influence in the region.

As foreign minister, he wasn't known for being a consensus builder, said
Eloy Torres, a career-diplomat from 1984-2012 who worked extensively
with Maduro.

"He doesn't look for agreements unless he absolutely has to," Torres
said. "And now he's a prisoner to his own rhetoric and the radical
groups that are supporting him."

On the campaign trail Maduro has one distinct advantage: Chávez's
blessing. On Dec. 8, shortly before travelling to Cuba for his final
round of cancer treatment, Chávez asked the nation to rally behind his
recently appointed vice president if new elections were triggered. On
the stump, Maduro has been showing that video. He has called himself
Chávez's "son" and told crowds that the late leader appeared to him as a
bird and urged him to victory.

"Maduro is invoking Chávez's name every chance he gets," Torres said.
"It's as if the dead leader is his passport to victory."

THE RIVAL

The day after Maduro kicked off his campaign in Barinas, Chávez's home
state, Capriles followed. The size and energy of the crowds in the
government stronghold surprised many.

Capriles told the throngs that he "respected" their hometown hero but
that Maduro wasn't entitled to the presidency.

"Leadership is not inherited," Capriles said. "You have to sweat for it
and build it alongside the people."

As the governor of Miranda, Venezuela's second-most populous state,
Capriles has honed a reputation as a workaholic willing to cross party
lines to get things done. During last year's campaign, he was often
charged with being too conciliatory.

This time, the gloves are off. Capriles has accused Maduro of lying
about Chávez's health and using his death to maximize political gain. He
has also accused the military of being part of the government's
get-out-the-vote machine, and suggested ruling party officials are going
to tamper with voting machines.

Vicente Díaz, the only opposition member of the National Electoral
Council, told the Agence France-Presse news service that the vote itself
would be fair, but that the unequal footing of the two campaigns makes
the election "profoundly antidemocratic."

"We don't have the economic resources, the institutions or the
ministries," Capriles told the crowd. "We don't have public workers that
we can force to attend our political rallies. But we do have hope, faith
and courage to take this country forward."

Capriles caught global attention in 2012 when he won an opposition
primary that gave him the unenviable task of facing Chávez at the polls.
The race took him on a grueling tour to villages that had never seen a
presidential candidate before. Even so, he lost, and his decision to
accept defeat rather than protest the results, brought rebukes from many
of his allies. Two months later, Capriles defended his job as governor
of Miranda against Elías Jaua, Chávez vice president and handpicked
contender.

Chávez's allies swept 20 out of 23 governors' posts in that election,
but Capriles kept his job.

As the presidential race was heating up, Capriles reminded voters that
in 2008 he had beat another Chávez vice president, Diosdado Cabello, for
the Miranda post. And he issued a challenge to then-Vice President Maduro.

"I've done-in two vice presidents," Capriles said, sliding a finger
across his throat. "Send me the third one."

Born in Caracas in 1972 to a family of émigrés — his grandparents were
Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust — Capriles went to law school in
Venezuela before briefly attending Columbia University in New York. In
1998, he ran for congress and became the country's youngest speaker of
the house at 25. That same year, Chávez became president and won the
right to dissolve the legislature. Capriles was out of a job.

But by 2000, he had rebounded, becoming the mayor of Baruta — part of
greater Caracas. In the wake of a 2002 coup that briefly ousted Chávez,
a mob surrounded the Cuban embassy to drum out government officials
taking refuge there. When Chávez returned to power days later, the
courts accused Capriles of abetting the mob and not calling on the
Baruta police. Capriles maintained his innocence but spent 120 days in
jail. The charges were eventually dropped.

Ramírez, with ORC consulting, has known Capriles for more than a decade.
He said the wiry runner can be so "pensive" that he often seems
standoffish. And he knows how to learn from mistakes.

This time around, Capriles has shuffled top advisors, is relying more on
his opposition allies, and has been far more combative, he said.

"So maybe he doesn't bat a home run, but makes it to second or third
base before he's out," Ramírez said. "He's going to lose fighting, not
because he gave up."

Nicolás Maduro

Born: Nov. 23, 1962, in Caracas

Public Service: 1999: Member of assembly that rewrote constitution;
2000: National Assembly member; 2006: foreign minister; October 2012:
vice president; March 2013: interim president

Interesting fact: Maduro has been a follower of the Indian guru Sathya
Sai Baba and had a private audience with him in 2005. But Maduro doesn't
speak about his religious beliefs on the campaign trail.

Henrique Capriles

Born: July 11, 1972, in Caracas

Public Service: 1999: national legislator; 2000-2008: mayor of Baruta;
2008-present: governor of Miranda; 2012: presidential candidate

Interesting fact: Capriles' grandparents were Jewish Holocaust
survivors, but he is a professed Catholic. He's a devout follower of the
Virgin del Valle, a manifestation of the Virgin Mary associated with
Margarita Island. He has visited the shrine every year for more than a
decade.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/07/v-fullstory/3329249/maduro-and-capriles-tale-of-two.html