CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition standard bearer Henrique Capriles mocked President Hugo Chavez’s grandiose campaign pledges two weeks before the election, and vowed to fix voters’ daily problems if he wins.
Capriles, a 40-year-old state governor, said the socialist leader was more interested in promoting his self-styled revolution around the globe than in addressing local issues such a power cuts, unemployment and high crime rates.
Speaking on Saturday at a rally in southern Bolivar state, Capriles brandished the proposals by Chavez’s campaign in a leaflet bearing the slogan “The Candidate of the Fatherland.”
“I invite you all to read this. This is what the government is interested in: … ‘guarantee world peace, preserve the life of the planet and save the human species,’“ he said to laughs and jeers from the crowd.
“They want to take this revolution, this political project, to other countries, and use our resources to finance it. … I don’t see anything about solving the problems with electricity, the problems with water, with public services.”
Chavez, whose oil-fueled largesse has helped support leftist governments around Latin America, is seeking another six-year term in a close race ahead of the Oct. 7 election for control of the OPEC member with the world’s biggest oil reserves.
The 58-year-old, who has undergone cancer surgery three times since June 2011, remains very popular with many in the country’s poor majority thanks to heavy state spending on social development projects, as well as his own humble roots.
For the first time, he is facing a particularly energetic candidate backed by a united opposition coalition who has waged a tireless campaign, criss-crossing Venezuela for months.
‘Chavistas’ march in
Caracas
Chavez leads the majority of the best-known opinion polls, but polls are notoriously controversial and divergent in Venezuela and one major survey has Capriles ahead.
Both sides discount unfavourable polls and insist their candidate is ahead. Late on Friday, Chavez said the opposition planned to cry fraud and would try to destabilize the country – whatever the result of the vote.
“They are getting ready to cry fraud and reject the people’s triumph. I advise them not to dare,” he told a rally in the western mountain city of Merida. “I urge the rational, serious, democratic members of the right to take control.”
The campaign has so far been more peaceful than some Venezuelans had feared, but there remains the risk of a more serious confrontation – possibly over a count contested by either side.
The president routinely accuses the opposition of plotting to scrap his signature social “missions,” including the Mercal chain of subsidized food stores, if Capriles wins the election.
