Calgary Herald

Opposition leader joins Venezuelan race

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CaraCas, venezUela— Opposition leader Henrique Capriles says he will run in April 14 presidenti­al elections to replace Hugo Chavez.

During Sunday night’s announceme­nt, he accused opponent Nicolas Maduro of using Chavez’s corpse as a campaign prop. Maduro is Chavez’s hand-picked successor.

On Sunday Maduro picked up the support of Venezuela’s small communist party. In a speech accepting the party’s nomination, Maduro insisted he was running for president out of loyalty to Chavez, not vanity or personal ambition, and called on the people to support him.

“I am not Chavez,” Maduro said. “In terms of intelligen­ce, charisma, historical force, or capacity to lead ... But I am a Chavista and I live and die for him.”

Capriles, 40, faced a stark choice over competing in the vote, which most analysts say he is sure to lose amid a frenzy of sympathy and mourning for the dead president.

Some say a second defeat for Capriles just six months after he lost last year’s presidenti­al vote to Chavez could derail his political career. If he waits, a Chavista government led by Nicolas Maduro, the acting president, might prove inept and give him a better shot down the road. But staying on the sidelines also would have put his leadership of the opposition under a cloud.

Capriles said supporters told him the odds are so stacked against him that running against the Chavista machine would be like being dropped into a meat grinder.

Opposition critics have called Maduro’s ascension unconstitu­tional, noting the charter designates the National Assembly president as acting leader if a president-elect cannot be sworn in.

Chavez died Tuesday after defeating Capriles in October elections with 56 per cent of the vote. Capriles won 44 per cent of votes, the opposition’s best showing ever against Chavez during his 14-year rule.

 ?? Guillermo legaria/getty Images ?? A boy takes part along with supporters of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in a street demonstrat­ion in Caracas on Sunday.
Guillermo legaria/getty Images A boy takes part along with supporters of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in a street demonstrat­ion in Caracas on Sunday.

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