Posted on Saturday, 04.13.13
Venezuela's choice: Chavez heir or fresh start
By FRANK BAJAK and ALEXANDRA OLSON
Asociated Press
CARACAS, Venezuela -- Voters who kept Hugo Chavez in office for 14
years decide Sunday whether to elect the devoted lieutenant he chose to
carry on the revolution that endeared him to the poor but that many
Venezuelans believe is ruining the nation.
Nicolas Maduro sought to ride Chavez's endorsement to victory with a
campaign nearly bereft of promises but freighted with personal attacks
that was otherwise little more than an unflagging tribute to the
polarizing leader who died of cancer March 5.
The 50-year-old longtime Chavez foreign minister pinned his hopes on the
immense loyalty for his boss among millions of poor beneficiaries of a
socialist government's largesse and the heft of a state apparatus that
Chavez skillfully consolidated.
The governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela deployed a well-worn,
get-out-the-vote machine spearheaded by loyal state employees. It also
enjoyed a pervasive state media apparatus as part of a near monopoly on
institutional power.
Challenger Henrique Capriles' aides accused Chavista loyalists in the
judiciary of putting them at glaring disadvantage. Prosecutors and state
regulators impoverished the campaign and opposition broadcast media by
targeting them with unwarranted fines and prosecutions, they said
Capriles' main campaign weapon was thus jujutsu: To simply point out
"the incompetence of the state," as he put it to reporters in a news
conference Saturday night.
Maduro was still favored, but his early big lead in opinion polls halved
over the past two weeks in a country struggling with the legacy of
Chavez's management of the world's largest oil reserves. Many
Venezuelans believe his confederates not only squandered but plundered
much of the $1 trillion in oil revenues during his time in office.
People are fed up with chronic power outages, crumbling infrastructure,
unfinished public works projects, double-digit inflation, food and
medicine shortages and rampant crime that has given Venezuela among the
world's highest homicide and kidnapping rates.
Capriles is a 40-year-old state governor who lost to Chavez in October's
presidential election by a nearly 11-point margin, the best showing ever
by a challenger to the longtime president. He showed for Maduro none of
the respect he accorded Chavez. Maduro hit back hard, at one point
calling Capriles' backers "heirs of Hitler." It was an odd accusation
considering that Capriles is the grandson of Holcaust survivors from Poland.
"Capriles ran a remarkable campaign that shows he has creativity,
tenacity and disposition to play political hardball," said David Smilde,
an analyst with the Washington Office on Latin America think tank.
At his campaign rallies, Capriles would read out a list of unfinished
road, bridge and rail projects. Then he asked people what goods were
scarce on store shelves. The opposition contends Chavez emptied the
treasury last year to buy re-election with government largesse.
Maduro, a former union activist and bus driver with close ties to Cuba's
leaders, constantly alleged that Capriles was conspiring with U.S.
putschists to destabilize Venezuela and even suggested Washington had
somehow infected Chavez with the cancer that killed him.
But mainly he focused his campaign message on the simple theme of his
mentor's October campaign: "I am Chavez. We are all Chavez."
Maduro promised to expand anti-poverty programs, but without explaining
how he'd pay for them.
On Saturday evening, Maduro met with members of Venezuela's
125,000-strong citizen militias outside the museum that holds Chavez's
remains to mark a poignant anniversary: Eleven years since Chavez was
triumphantly restored to power after a failed coup initially recognized
by the U.S. government.
Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank said Maduro
campaigned "ineptly," trying too hard to "replay the Chavez script" and
alienating moderate Chavistas.
Whoever wins Sunday will face no end of hard choices.
Many Venezuelan factories operate at half capacity because strict
currency controls make it hard for them to pay for imported parts and
materials. Business leaders say some companies are on verging on
bankruptcy because they are unable to extend lines of credit with
foreign suppliers.
Chavez imposed currency controls a decade ago trying to stem capital
flight as his government expropriated large land parcels and dozens of
businesses. Now, dollars sell on the black market at three times the
official exchange rate and Maduro has had to devalue Venezuela's
currency, the bolivar, twice this year.
Meanwhile, consumers grumble that stores are short of milk, butter, corn
flour and other food staples. The government blames hoarding, while the
opposition points at the price controls imposed by Chavez in an attempt
to bring down double-digit inflation.
Capriles said he will reverse land expropriations, which he says have
ruined many farms and forced Venezuela to import food after previously
being a net exporter of beef, rice, coffee and other foods. But even
Capriles said currency and price controls cannot be immediately scrapped
without triggering a disastrous run on the bolivar.
High international oil prices remain a boon for Venezuela, underpinning
its economy. Chavez spent $500 billion to bolster social programs,
trimming the poverty rate from 50 percent to about 30 percent.
But critics say the government has misused the oil industry, ordering
the state oil company PDVSA into food distribution and financing of
social programs while neglecting needed investment that has caused
production and refining to drop.
Venezuela's oil revenue is down from $5.6 billion five years ago to $3.8
billion in 2012, and PDVSA's debt climbed to $40 billion last year. The
country even imports 100,000 barrels a day of gasoline from the United
States.
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Alexandra Olson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alexolson99
Frank Bajak on Twitter: http://twitter.com/fbajak
Associated Press writers Frank Bajak in Tacarigua and Jorge Rueda in
Caracas contributed to this report.
Read more here:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/13/v-fullstory/3341804/lead-narrows-for-chavez-heir-amid.html#storylink=cpy
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