CARACAS — Venezuelan presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski is hoping to complete a trifecta of victories against the country's vice presidents in next month's election to choose a successor to fallen leader Hugo Chávez.
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Back in 2008, Capriles upset Chávez's right hand man and former Vice President Diosdado Cabello -- now head of the national assembly -- and was elected governor of the populous state of Miranda. Last December, he bested another former vice president, Elías Jaua -- now foreign minister -- to win reelection.
Both of these were impressive victories -- the government spent heavily in hopes of ousting him -- but the third victory will undoubtedly be the toughest. Capriles, who is regarded as the opposition's best, and perhaps only, hope to retake the country's presidency, is facing acting President Nicolás Maduro, whom Chávez chose as his vice president in October. In addition to access to the substantial resources of the state, Maduro is riding high on a wave of public sympathy for Chávez, who died March 5 after a two-year bout with cancer. It's also Capriles's second presidential race in less than a year: Chávez beat him last October, though it was the closest-fought campaign of the late president's 14-year tenure.
"The election is going to be a referendum on what kind of man, what kind of president Hugo Chávez was," said Ray Walzer, a fellow at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation. "The problem for Capriles is that Venezuela is in a post-Chávez hangover now."
Polls matching Capriles and Maduro and taken before Chávez´s death showed the latter with a strong double-digit lead, ranging from 10 to 15 percentage points. However, Capriles has come out swinging this time, in marked contrast to his race last year when some advisors felt he was too deferential to the ailing president and didn't attack Chávez's policies enough. They also faulted him for not responding to Chávez's personal insults.
"Candidate Capriles is going to be much more forceful this time, more direct and questioning," said an advisor to the challenger, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Last time he was too polite, which was viewed as a weakness. This time, the gloves are off."
Capriles has wasted no time on going on the attack since accepting the nomination from the opposition coalition front to contest the April 14 election. He has repeatedly charged that Maduro, 50, lied to the Venezuelans about the date and circumstances of Chávez's death, to give himself more time to fortify his position. His stump speech hammers the acting president, claiming that Maduro's first 100 days in office have been a disaster, highlighted by the decision to devalue the country's currency by 32 percent.
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