CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelans flooded polling stations Sunday in the most anticipated election in years, to decide whether the ailing president, Hugo Chavez, should extend his long rule by six years and complete the consolidation of his socialist project in this oil-rich country.
His challenger, Henrique Capriles, who is 40 and nicknamed “Skinny” by his followers, has been able to marshal a large following of people who believe that Chavez’s 14 years in power have led to rampant crime, mismanagement and a moribund economy.
Video
On Sunday, voters started lining up hours before dawn to cast their ballots in the presidential election. Pres. Hugo Chavez's crusade to transform Venezuela into a socialist state is being put to the stiffest electoral test of his nearly 14 years in power.
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The wild card in the contest between two markedly different men that began eight months ago is Chavez’s health. The 58-year-old former army paratrooper, famous for his seemingly boundless energy and his hours-long speeches, had until the past three months been mostly out of sight, as doctors here and in Cuba treated him for a cancerous tumor. Chavez said he is cured, but details of his illness are a state secret.
On Sunday, though, Venezuelans mainly argued about what kind of government they want: a powerful state that nationalizes companies and floods social programs with petro dollars or a more business-friendly government that rebuilds tattered relations with the United States.
“I think we are really going to get enough votes to change the government,” said Mary Angela Herman, 68, who brought her 93-year-old father to vote at a leafy upper-class neighborhood in Caracas. “We are all very confident because we have seen so many people here with Capriles.”
The president’s campaign, though, is disciplined and loyal, and well before dawn bugles sounded in the poor barrios where El Comandante has long drawn the bulk of his followers. That got voters to the polls, where lines started to form before 5 a.m. for openings an hour later.
“You can’t do better than this president,” said Miguel Guevara, 77, who sells books in the streets and voted in a poor barrio whose support helped bring Chavez to power. “The only one who has helped the country is named Hugo Chavez.”
Lilian Gonzalez, 60, who takes care of children, also praised Chavez and said that the run-up to the election has been anguishing for her because she has feared that the president would be defeated and that the country would “go back to the past.”
“That would be horrible for us,” she said.
Gonzalez’s concerns mirror those of the government, which had never encountered a campaign so well-organized and focused. In the 2006 election, Chavez took 63 percent of the vote, beating Manuel Rosales by 26 points — perhaps the president’s most resounding electoral victory of the past decade.
Capriles played up his youth, literally running along city streets with his energized followers in tow. He also avoided criticizing Chavez personally, although the president heaped scorn on him, calling him everything from a “fascist” to a “mediocre boot-licker.”
“Who’s going to debate with you, boy?” Chavez said in one recent speech, after Capriles challenged him to a debate. “Learn how to talk first. Get into the Robinson Mission [a state program for illiterate people]. Boy, you are a political illiterate, mediocre one. Who are you to debate with Chavez, boy?”
Polls in recent days displayed divergent outcomes — some had the two candidates running neck and neck and others showed that Chavez was comfortably ahead with most voters. Organizers in Capriles’s campaign argued that the many people who were polled and called themselves undecided had actually decided on Capriles, but wouldn’t say so publicly.
It is now not difficult to find people who openly support Capriles in neighborhoods that were stridently pro-Chavez as recently as 2009, when the president won a referendum that permitted the government to strike away term limits.
Luis Baena, 54, argued that the economy was in a shambles but said violent crime was foremost on his mind. Venezuela’s homicide rate has more than quadrupled since Chavez was elected in 2008, with Caracas becoming the most violent city in South America.
“They’ve robbed me, they have robbed my wife, they have robbed my children,” Baena said, ticking off how many times each of them has been held up. “Night life has ended and doesn’t exist in Venezuela. Insecurity is terrible.”
Still, Chavez has used his oratorical gifts and petro money to create a near-religious connection with his followers, one that has never been easy for the opposition to break. He says that Capriles will represent the interests of the United States, not the poor, and that he will slash popular social programs that have been the backbone of his government, a claim Capriles denies.
Among those, though, who say they do not trust Capriles is Javier Alejandro Piñango, 33, a delivery driver. He says Capriles has tried to fashion himself as a populist like Chavez but Piñango believes he is anything but.
“The other candidate has no proposal, he has no spark,” said Piñango, speaking of Capriles. “That is what I like about El Comandante and what he has done. He has changed things and has also awakened us. And the country is better.”
His challenger, Henrique Capriles, who is 40 and nicknamed “Skinny” by his followers, has been able to marshal a large following of people who believe that Chavez’s 14 years in power have led to rampant crime, mismanagement and a moribund economy.
Video
On Sunday, voters started lining up hours before dawn to cast their ballots in the presidential election. Pres. Hugo Chavez's crusade to transform Venezuela into a socialist state is being put to the stiffest electoral test of his nearly 14 years in power.
More World News
Juan Forero As election gets underway, ailing Venezuelan leader faces rival who has energized the opposition.
Olga Khazan
The sentence comes after India’s Supreme Court ruled that honor killings are a capital offense.
Millions of beer drinkers from around the world will ‘Prost’ in the Bavarian capital for the 179th Oktoberfest, which runs through Oct. 7.The wild card in the contest between two markedly different men that began eight months ago is Chavez’s health. The 58-year-old former army paratrooper, famous for his seemingly boundless energy and his hours-long speeches, had until the past three months been mostly out of sight, as doctors here and in Cuba treated him for a cancerous tumor. Chavez said he is cured, but details of his illness are a state secret.
On Sunday, though, Venezuelans mainly argued about what kind of government they want: a powerful state that nationalizes companies and floods social programs with petro dollars or a more business-friendly government that rebuilds tattered relations with the United States.
“I think we are really going to get enough votes to change the government,” said Mary Angela Herman, 68, who brought her 93-year-old father to vote at a leafy upper-class neighborhood in Caracas. “We are all very confident because we have seen so many people here with Capriles.”
The president’s campaign, though, is disciplined and loyal, and well before dawn bugles sounded in the poor barrios where El Comandante has long drawn the bulk of his followers. That got voters to the polls, where lines started to form before 5 a.m. for openings an hour later.
“You can’t do better than this president,” said Miguel Guevara, 77, who sells books in the streets and voted in a poor barrio whose support helped bring Chavez to power. “The only one who has helped the country is named Hugo Chavez.”
Lilian Gonzalez, 60, who takes care of children, also praised Chavez and said that the run-up to the election has been anguishing for her because she has feared that the president would be defeated and that the country would “go back to the past.”
“That would be horrible for us,” she said.
Gonzalez’s concerns mirror those of the government, which had never encountered a campaign so well-organized and focused. In the 2006 election, Chavez took 63 percent of the vote, beating Manuel Rosales by 26 points — perhaps the president’s most resounding electoral victory of the past decade.
Capriles played up his youth, literally running along city streets with his energized followers in tow. He also avoided criticizing Chavez personally, although the president heaped scorn on him, calling him everything from a “fascist” to a “mediocre boot-licker.”
“Who’s going to debate with you, boy?” Chavez said in one recent speech, after Capriles challenged him to a debate. “Learn how to talk first. Get into the Robinson Mission [a state program for illiterate people]. Boy, you are a political illiterate, mediocre one. Who are you to debate with Chavez, boy?”
Polls in recent days displayed divergent outcomes — some had the two candidates running neck and neck and others showed that Chavez was comfortably ahead with most voters. Organizers in Capriles’s campaign argued that the many people who were polled and called themselves undecided had actually decided on Capriles, but wouldn’t say so publicly.
It is now not difficult to find people who openly support Capriles in neighborhoods that were stridently pro-Chavez as recently as 2009, when the president won a referendum that permitted the government to strike away term limits.
Luis Baena, 54, argued that the economy was in a shambles but said violent crime was foremost on his mind. Venezuela’s homicide rate has more than quadrupled since Chavez was elected in 2008, with Caracas becoming the most violent city in South America.
“They’ve robbed me, they have robbed my wife, they have robbed my children,” Baena said, ticking off how many times each of them has been held up. “Night life has ended and doesn’t exist in Venezuela. Insecurity is terrible.”
Still, Chavez has used his oratorical gifts and petro money to create a near-religious connection with his followers, one that has never been easy for the opposition to break. He says that Capriles will represent the interests of the United States, not the poor, and that he will slash popular social programs that have been the backbone of his government, a claim Capriles denies.
Among those, though, who say they do not trust Capriles is Javier Alejandro Piñango, 33, a delivery driver. He says Capriles has tried to fashion himself as a populist like Chavez but Piñango believes he is anything but.
“The other candidate has no proposal, he has no spark,” said Piñango, speaking of Capriles. “That is what I like about El Comandante and what he has done. He has changed things and has also awakened us. And the country is better.”