Venezuela’s Maduro kicks off election campaign

Acting President Nicolas Maduro officially opened his campaign to succeed Hugo Chavez Tuesday in Venezuela, vowing to carry on his mentor’s socialist legacy in the late leader’s hometown ahead of the April 14 election. Maduro, a 50-year-old former foreign minister and vice president, was accompanied by hundreds of supporters, government officials and Chavez relatives as he visited the fallen president’s childhood home, now a local ruling PSUV socialist party headquarters. “We will fulfill the will and legacy of President Chavez,” the handpicked successor said, describing the house as the “cradle of the Bolivarian revolution.” “We feel commander Chavez within us, like a father. We come to make a commitment with this land that saw his birth, pledge to never fail him and build socialism to its last consequences,” he said. Speaking outside Chavez’s old family home, Maduro called the late leader a “prophet,” a “giant of the fatherland” and the “supreme commander” in another eulogy of the firebrand leftist. He added: “I want to ratify a commitment that we made to him. I will be the president of this country because that was his order and because our people ratified it.” While Maduro, who is favored to win the election, was in Chavez’s homeland, opposition leader Henrique Capriles was launching his campaign in the eastern state of Monagas. “Today we continue our crusade from Monagas,” the 40-year-old governor of Miranda state wrote on Twitter, urging his supporters to have “faith, hope and courage.” Capriles also accused Maduro Monday of unfairly using state media and money in his campaign. “The state media have become a propaganda wing of a political party,” Capriles alleged, referring to the socialist party of Maduro. In free and fair balloting, candidates are supposed to have the same access and the same rights, Capriles told a news conference. But Maduro is relying on “all of the state’s resources ... and all of the state’s power structure” to run his campaign, Capriles charged. Capriles said Maduro had spent 46 hours on state TV since Chavez’s death on March 5. Later Monday night, Capriles joined a march against insecurity in the country, railing against the government for failing to address the pressing issue. “There is not a single proposal for the government to defeat violence and give peace to Venezuelans,” he said before a crowd of hundreds of thousands. Maduro, 50, formerly served as Chavez’s foreign minister and vice president. Miranda state governor Capriles, 40, lost to Chavez in an October election. Chavez, who came to embody a resurgent Latin American left while channeling Venezuela’s oil wealth into social programs for the poor, died last month after a long battle with cancer. During his 14 years in power Chavez developed a vast media apparatus consisting of at least five television broadcast channels, two newspapers and dozens of local radio stations carrying the government’s message. Maduro leads Capriles by a 20-point margin, according to a poll out Monday by Hinterlaces, which indicated Maduro would win 55 percent of the vote compared to Capriles’ 35 percent. A previous survey on March 19 gave Maduro a similar margin of 18 points. In an exclusive interview with AFP over the weekend, Maduro insisted the “revolution” was united behind him. “I trust that people will go to the polls to vote for Maduro because we are like a family that lost its father,” he said. Some 150 international observers are expected to be on hand for the vote, the electoral council announced Monday. Referring to the October contest, the Carter Center approved of the electronic voting system but noted the incumbent had an advantage because the government could broadcast lengthy speeches by Chavez and ads praising its own policies.