CARACAS (Reuters) – Presidential candidates Nicolas Maduro and Henrique Capriles have begun Venezuela’s election race with scathing personal attacks even as mourners still file past Hugo Chavez’s coffin.
Maduro, who was sworn in as acting president after Chavez died of cancer last week, is seen as favourite to win the April 14 election, bolstered by an oil-financed state apparatus and a wave of public sympathy over Chavez’s death.
“I am not Chavez, but I am his son,” Maduro told thousands of cheering, red-clad supporters as he formally presented his candidacy to the election board yesterday.
“I am you, a worker. You and I are Chavez’s workers and soldiers of the fatherland,” the former bus driver and union activist added after the crowd’s emotions were whipped up by recordings of Chavez singing the national anthem.
Chavez made clear before his fourth and last cancer operation in December that he wanted Maduro to be his Socialist Party’s candidate to succeed him if he died.
Maduro has vowed to continue the radical policies of Chavez’s 14-year rule in the South American OPEC nation, including the popular use of vast oil revenues for social programmes. But Capriles is promising a tough fight. “Nicolas, I’m not going to give you a free passage … you are not Chavez,” Capriles said in a combative speech late on Sunday. He also accused Maduro of lying to minimise Chavez’s medical condition while he prepared his candidacy.
“Nicolas lied to this country for months,” Capriles said. “You are exploiting someone who is no longer here because you have nothing else to offer the country … I don’t play with death, I don’t play with suffering, like that.”
At stake in the election is not only the future of Chavez’s leftist “revolution,” but the continuation of Venezuelan oil subsidies and other aid crucial to the economies of left-wing allies around Latin America, from Cuba to Bolivia.
Venezuela boasts the world’s largest oil reserves.
Government officials said Capriles was playing with fire, offending Chavez’s family and risking legal action by criticizing the handling of his illness and death.
“You can see the disgusting face of the fascist that he is,” a visibly furious Maduro said, alleging that the opposition was hoping to stir up violence.
Capriles, a descendant of Polish Jews on his mother’s side, was a victim of racist and homophobic slurs from Chavez supporters last year. Maduro appeared to allude to his rival’s sexuality during yesterday’s rally.
“I do have a woman, you know? I do like women!” he told the crowd, his wife and attorney-general Cilia Flores at his side.
Though single, Capriles has had various high-profile girlfriends in the past. He scoffs at the personal insults, saying they illustrate the government’s aggressive mindset.
Shaken by Chavez’s death and now immersed in an ugly election campaign, Venezuelans saw some semblance of normality return yesterday as most schools and shops re-opened after being closed for most of last week.
Chavez’s many local detractors are keeping a low profile.
But they say his memory is being burnished to forget less savory parts of his rule like the bullying of opponents and stifling of private businesses with nationalisations.
“The government wants to make Venezuelans think it is impossible (for the opposition) to win this election … but we can if we come out and vote,” said prominent opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, rallying supporters.
“Mr Maduro, use and abuse all the power you want … we will not go down on our knees.”
The official mourning period for Chavez ends today.
Several million have paid their respects at his coffin at a military academy in a dramatic outpouring of grief.
Though criticised by many for his authoritarian tendencies and handling of the economy, Chavez was loved by millions, especially the poor, because of his own humble background, plain language and attacks on global “imperialists” and the domestic “elite,” as well as his welfare policies in Venezuela’s slums.
In death, he is earning a near-religious status among supporters, perhaps akin to that of Argentina’s former populist ruler Juan Peron and his deeply loved wife Eva Peron.
State TV has been playing speeches and appearances by Chavez over and over, next to a banner saying “Chavez lives forever.”
Though there are hopes for a post-Chavez rapprochement between ideological foes Venezuela and the United States, a diplomatic spat worsened yesterday when Washington expelled two Venezuelan diplomats in a tit-for-tat retaliation.
Two US military attaches were ordered out last week, on the day of Chavez’s death, for allegedly conspiring with locals against the government.
Capriles, a 40-year-old centrist governor who describes himself as a “progressive” and an admirer of Brazil’s model, ran in the last presidential election in October, taking 44 per cent of the votes, but was unable to prevent Chavez’s re-election.
While attacking Maduro’s handling of the crisis over Chavez’s cancer, Capriles will try to turn the focus of the month-long election campaign to the many day-to-day problems afflicting Venezuelans, from electricity cuts to crime and an inflation rate that is among the world’s highest.
