Maduro seeks second term in isolated, ruined Venezuela
CARACAS: Shrugging aside his country’s economic ruin and growing international isolation, Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro seeks a second six-year term in controversial elections Sunday that are being boycotted by the opposition.
Maduro’s ebullient campaign meetings have done little to disguise a lack of enthusiasm in the oil-rich but cash-poor South American country, where the result is widely seen as a foregone conclusion.
He held his final rally on Bolivar Avenue in downtown Caracas on Thursday, enlisting former Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona to fire-up the crowd.
Applauded by Maduro and his supporters, Maradona declared himself a Maduro ‘soldier,’ waved a Venezuelan flag and punched the air as he danced to loud reggaeton music on the stage.
“Trust me, if you give me your vote and give us victory, I swear I will lead great economic changes and drive an economic revolution that will shake the world,” pledged Maduro.
Maduro is the clear favourite, despite trailing in opinion polls to his main rival Henri Falcon, and a low approval rating among Venezuelans fed up with hyperinflation, food and medicine shortages, rising crime and broken water, power and transportation networks.
Opinion polls show Falcon leading with 30 per cent of voter intentions, compared to Maduro’s 20 per cent. An evangelical candidate, Javier Bertucci, has 14 per cent.
Maduro, with a tight grip on the electoral and military authorities, faces a bitterly divided opposition.
He continues his defiance in the face of increasing international isolation and US and EU sanctions.
“We will not give in to blackmail,” he says.
“We do not care if they do not recognise us. The president of Venezuela is elected by the people, not Donald Trump.”