Venezuelans choose between Chavez heir, new path

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Voters chose Sunday between the hand-picked successor who campaigned to carry on Hugo Chavez's self-styled socialist revolution and an emboldened second-time challenger who warned that the late president's regime has Venezuela on the road to ruin.

Nicolas Maduro, the longtime foreign minister to Chavez, pinned his hopes on the immense loyalty for his boss among millions of poor beneficiaries of government largesse and the powerful state apparatus that Chavez skillfully consolidated.

Maduro's campaign was mostly a near-religious homage to the man he called "the redeemer of the Americas," who succumbed to cancer March 5. He blamed Venezuela's myriad woes on vague plots by alleged saboteurs that the government never identified.

Challenger Henrique Capriles' main campaign weapon was to simply emphasize "the incompetence of the state," as he put it to reporters Saturday night.

Maduro, 50, was favored to win, but his early big lead in opinion polls was cut in half over the past two weeks in a country struggling with the legacy of Chavez's management of the world's largest oil reserves. Millions of Venezuelans were lifted out of poverty under Chavez, but many also believe his government not only squandered, but plundered, much of the $1 trillion in oil revenues during his tenure.

Venezuelans are afflicted by chronic power outages, crumbling infrastructure, unfinished public works projects, double-digit inflation, food and medicine shortages, and rampant crime. Venezuela has one of the world's highest homicide and kidnapping rates.

"We can't continue to believe in messiahs," said Jose Romero, a 48-year-old industrial engineer who voted for Capriles in the central city of Valencia. "This country has learned a lot and today we know that one person can't fix everything."

In the Chavista stronghold of Petare outside Caracas, the Maduro vote was strong. Maria Velasquez, 48, who works in a government soup kitchen that feeds 200 people, said she was voting for Chavez's man "because that is what my comandante ordered."

Reynaldo Ramos, a 60-year-old construction worker, said he "voted for Chavez" before correcting himself and saying he chose Maduro. But he could not seem to get his beloved leader out of his mind.

"We must always vote for Chavez because he always does what's best for the people and we're going to continue on this path," Ramos said. He said the government had helped him get work on the subway system and helps pay his grandchildren's school costs.

The governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela deployed a well-worn get-out-the-vote machine spearheaded by loyal state employees. It also enjoyed the backing of state media as part of its near-monopoly on institutional power.

Capriles' camp said Chavista loyalists in the judiciary put them at glaring disadvantage by slapping the campaign and broadcast media with fines and prosecutions that they called unwarranted.

Capriles is a 40-year-old state governor who lost to Chavez in October's presidential election by a nearly 11-point margin, the best showing ever by a challenger to the longtime president.

"Capriles ran a remarkable campaign that shows he has creativity, tenacity and disposition to play political hardball," said David Smilde, an analyst with the Washington Office on Latin America think tank.

At his campaign rallies, Capriles would read out a list of unfinished road, bridge and rail projects. Then he asked people what goods were scarce on store shelves.

Capriles showed Maduro none of the respect he earlier accorded Chavez. Maduro hit back hard, at one point calling Capriles' backers "heirs of Hitler." It was an odd accusation considering that Capriles is the grandson of Holocaust survivors from Poland.

The opposition contended Chavez looted the treasury last year to buy his re-election with government handouts. It also complained about the steady flow of cut-rate oil to Cuba, which Capriles said would end if he won.

Venezuela's $30 billion fiscal deficit is equal to about 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

Maduro, a former union activist and bus driver with close ties to Cuba's leaders, constantly alleged that Capriles was conspiring with U.S. putschists to destabilize Venezuela and even suggested Washington had infected Chavez with the cancer that killed him.

He focused his campaign message on his mentor: "I am Chavez. We are all Chavez." And he promised to expand anti-poverty programs.

Voting lines seemed considerably lighter than in the October election that Chavez won, when more than 80 percent of the electorate turned out, although government officials said it was due to the improved efficiency of the system.

A few dozen people gathered outside the Caracas center where Maduro voted, in contrast to the thick crowds that waited for Chavez during last year's contest. The acting president punched the air as he got out of his car.

"For him, for the giant, for my father," Maduro said of Chavez after casting his ballot.

After Capriles voted, the opposition candidate declared: "I have no doubt that today, Venezuela wins."

The victor of Sunday's balloting will face no end of hard choices.

Many factories operate at half capacity because strict currency controls make it hard for them to pay for imported parts and materials. Business leaders say some companies verge on bankruptcy because they cannot extend lines of credit with foreign suppliers.

Chavez imposed currency controls a decade ago trying to stem capital flight as his government expropriated large land parcels and dozens of businesses. Now, dollars sell on the black market at three times the official exchange rate and Maduro has had to devalue Venezuela's currency, the bolivar, twice this year.

Meanwhile, consumers grumble that stores are short of milk, butter, corn flour and other staples. The government blames hoarding, while the opposition points at the price controls imposed by Chavez in an attempt to bring down double-digit inflation.

A 37-year-old government employee leaving a polling station in central Caracas with her 4-month-old son and her sister said she was fed up with what she described as political intimidation at her office and was voting for Capriles.

"We have to keep quiet at work or else they fire you or make your life impossible," said the woman, who asked that she only be identified by her first name, Laurena.

She said she had been told to attend pro-government marches. "You go for a little so they see your face and then you leave. It's not fair that you have to stop doing your job to go to a march. "

Capriles said he would reverse land expropriations, which he said had ruined many farms and forced Venezuela to import food after previously being a net exporter of beef, rice, coffee and other foods. But even Capriles said currency and price controls cannot be immediately scrapped without triggering a disastrous run on the bolivar.

High international oil prices remain a boon for Venezuela, underpinning its economy. Venezuela's oil revenue increased 6 percent in 2012 to $93 billion from $88 billion the previous year, according to Central Bank figures.

Chavez spent $500 billion to bolster social programs, trimming the poverty rate from 50 percent to about 30 percent.

But critics say the government has misused the oil industry, ordering the state oil company PDVSA into food distribution and financing of social programs while neglecting needed investment, causing production and refining to drop.

PDVSA's debt climbed to $40 billion last year and the country even has been importing 100,000 barrels a day of gasoline from the United States. Despite a jump in export revenue, the company said its profits dropped to $4.2 billion in 2012, from $4.5 billion in 2011.

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Associated Press writers Fabiola Sanchez, Jorge Rueda, E. Eduardo Castillo and Christopher Toothaker in Caracas and Vivian Sequera in Valencia contributed to this report.

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Alexandra Olson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alexolson99

Frank Bajak on Twitter: http://twitter.com/fbajak

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Throngs of Venezuelans file past Chavez's coffin

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — They filed past all night and into the morning, a line of mourners a mile (more than a kilometer) long hoping for one final glimpse of Hugo Chavez. The multitudes wept and crossed themselves as they reached the president's coffin Thursday, united in grief and admiration for a man many considered a father figure, even as Venezuela remains deeply divided over the future.

Cannon boomed a salute each hour, the only interruption to what seemed an endless procession as tens of thousands filed past, with countless more still to come.

"I waited 10 hours to see him, but I am very happy, proud to have seen my comandante," said 46-year-old Yudeth Hurtado, sobbing. "He is planted in our heart."

In a nod to the insecurity that plagues this country, mourners had to submit to a pat down, pass through a metal detector and remove the batteries from their mobile phones upon entering the military academy where Chavez is lying in state until his funeral Friday.

Several Latin American leaders have already arrived for the funeral, with Cuban President Raul Castro landing at Caracas' airport Thursday afternoon. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also announced that he will attend. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said Thursday that 54 countries were sending delegations, including 22 heads of state.

It was still unclear where Chavez will be buried. National Assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello said via Twitter late Wednesday that the president should be laid to rest at the National Pantheon, alongside the remains of 19th century independence hero Simon Bolivar. But Rafael Riera, secretary general of an opposition party in Chavez's native Barinas state, told The Associated Press that the late leader's family had requested he be buried there, next to his grandmother.

Officials also had yet to say when an election to replace Chavez will be held. The constitution says it must be called within 30 days of the president's March 5 death.

With mourners filing by, Jaua said the constitution would be followed and notably continued to refer to Chavez's anointed successor, Nicolas Maduro, as "vice president" although he had previously been identified as acting president.

The foreign minister also struck the defiant, us-against-the-world tone the government has projected since Chavez died, which some critics fear could incite passions in a country that remains on edge.

"They couldn't defeat him electorally, they couldn't assassinate him, they couldn't beat him militarily," Jaua declared. "Chavez died as president ... Chavez died the leader of his people."

At the military academy, Chavez lay in a glass-covered coffin wearing his olive-green military uniform and red beret.

As they reached the coffin, many placed a hand on their heart or saluted. Some held up children so they could see Chavez's face.

Ricardo Tria, a social worker, said he waited nearly four hours to pass by the casket. Chavez looked "asleep, quiet, serious," he said.

As a band played the anthem of his first battalion, Chavez's coffin was displayed at the academy after an emotion-drenched procession through Caracas on Wednesday. Generations of Venezuelans, many dressed in the red of Chavez's socialist party, filled the capital's streets to remember the man who dominated their country for 14 years before succumbing Tuesday afternoon to cancer.

The coffin was carried through the crowds atop an open hearse on an eight-kilometer (five-mile) journey that wound through the city's north and southeast, into many of the poorer neighborhoods where Chavez drew his political strength.

At the academy, Chavez's family and close advisers, as well as the presidents of Argentina, Bolivia and Uruguay, attended a funeral Mass around the casket.

The head of Venezuela's presidential guard, Gen. Jose Ornella, told The Associated Press late Wednesday that Chavez died of a massive heart attack after great suffering.

"He couldn't speak but he said it with his lips ... 'I don't want to die. Please don't let me die,' because he loved his country, he sacrificed himself for his country," said Ornella, who said he was with the socialist president at the moment of his death Tuesday.

While much of this country was immersed in collective grief, millions who bitterly opposed Chavez's take-no-prisoners brand of socialism were staying away from the mourning crowds, quietly hoping Chavez's death would usher in a less confrontational, more business-friendly era in this major oil-producing country.

Opponents already have been stepping up criticism of the government's questionable moves after Chavez's death, including naming Maduro as acting president. The 1999 constitution that Chavez himself pushed through seems to clearly state that the speaker of the National Assembly, in this case Cabello, should become interim president.

But Cabello doesn't appear interested in challenging the move, at least publically, and the military has also lined up in support of Maduro. The Defense Minister, Adm. Diego Molero, has even pledged military support for Maduro's candidacy against likely opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, raising concern among critics about the fairness of the vote.

Capriles, the 40-year-old governor of Miranda state who lost to Chavez in October, has stayed largely out of the public eye, though he was conciliatory in a televised address after the president's death.

Other opposition leaders were more critical of the military stance.

Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, executive secretary of the opposition coalition, called the defense minister's declarations "unacceptable" as well as "false, unconstitutional."

Cynthia Arnson, director of the Latin American Program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said Maduro would likely win the upcoming presidential vote, even if he won't be able to harness Chavez's charisma.

"There's really no one who can step into those shoes," she said.

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Associated Press writers Christopher Toothaker, Jorge Rueda and Fabiola Sanchez in Caracas contributed to this report.

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Paul Haven on Twitter: www.twitter.com/paulhaven

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Many Venezuelans believe in Chavez recovery

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's vice president said Thursday that Hugo Chavez is still fighting for his life, yet a recent poll says three in five Venezuelans believe their president will return to power.

Nicolas Maduro, Chavez's self-appointed successor, said on television that his boss "is battling there for his health, for his life, and we're accompanying him."

The vice president had characterized Chavez's condition similarly on Dec. 20, saying the president "is fighting a great battle ... for his life, for his health."

Chavez hasn't spoken or been seen since before his fourth operation in Cuba on Dec. 11 for an unspecified cancer in the pelvic area.

The government says he has been breathing with the help of a tracheal tube after surviving a serious respiratory infection. It says Chavez returned on Feb. 18 and is at a military hospital in Caracas for continued treatment for "respiratory insufficiency."

Despite speculation by doctors not involved in Chavez's treatment that it is most likely palliative, designed only to make him more comfortable in his remaining days, many Venezuelans apparently believe — or want to believe — he is on the mend.

"The president's prolonged absence and his critical situation have not been converted into massive pessimism about his return," respected pollster Luis Vicente Leon tweeted Thursday.

He said nearly 58 percent of Venezuelans believe Chavez will recover while about 30 percent believe he will not return to power and 12.5 percent say they don't know what will happen. One percent, meanwhile, believe Chavez was never sick.

Leon, chief of the Datanalisis polling firm, told The Associated Press that the Feb. 11 poll of 1,198 people had an error margin of three percentage points.

He said he thought the poll reflected people's desire not to believe the worst about someone who is dear to them, just as people resist accepting that a close relative might be dying.

Leon also said he thought reports of government officials holding hours-long meetings with Chavez had contributed to the belief of many Venezuelans that Chavez will return.

"The government has sent permanent messages that President Chavez will return, that he meets with the vice president for five hours," Leon noted.

He said people don't necessarily believe that, however, as the poll found 44 percent think the government has not been transparent in discussing the Chavez's health.

In his televised remarks, Maduro called for Venezuelans to keep praying for Chavez and remain loyal to the committed socialist who has been their president for more than 19 years.

"Do you know why Comandante Chavez neglected his health and has been battling (cancer) for nearly two years?" he said. "Because he completely surrendered body and soul and forgot all his obligations to himself in order to give himself to the homeland."

Chavez, 58, himself has previously acknowledged that he was neglecting his health in recent years, often staying up late and consuming cup after cup of coffee to remain alert.

The president has undergone surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatments since June 2011, when he first announced his cancer diagnosis. He hasn't specified the type of cancer or the exact location in his pelvic region where his tumors have been removed.

On Feb. 15, the government released four photographs of Chavez lying in a bed in Cuba with his two daughters by his side. They were the only images of him published since early December.

Re-elected in October, Chavez was scheduled to have been sworn in on Jan. 10. But the Supreme Court said the swearing-in could be delayed.

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Frank Bajak on Twitter: http://twitter.com/fbajak

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