CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuela’s most popular opposition leader launched his campaign yesterday to run against President Hugo Chavez in elections next year, saying he will take part in primaries to choose an opposition candidate.
Henrique Capriles, 38, governs an influential state that includes much of the capital Caracas and consistently tops polls of voters’ preferences for a candidate to stand against Chavez in December 2012 elections.
“I aspire to work so that we can together build a Vene-zuela for everyone; I don’t want to be president of one group, I aspire to be the president of all Venezuelans” he told a crowd of supporters who clapped and yelled “president, president.”
Chavez is seen as having a good chance of winning a new six-year term, however. He remains the OPEC member’s most popular politician, maintains a firm grip on most state institutions and has been bolstered by a rally in oil prices. In an apparent attempt to damage Capriles’ image, lawmakers from Chavez’s Socialist Party released CCTV footage of municipal police in Capriles’ Miranda state viciously beating a group of suspects in custody.
The mayor of the municipality said the footage was old and the police involved had already been punished.
