Venezuelans vote for president

Venezuela will hold presidential elections today(Sunday) with the main battle expected to be between the opposition leader Henrique Capriles and the successor to Hugo Chavez, the acting head of state, Nicolas Maduro.

According to opinion polls, Madura has the best chance of winning.

Special elections in Venezuela were called after the death, in early March, of Hugo Chavez.

Anniversary of 2002 coup marked in Venezuela

On Saturday Hugo Chavez loyalists celebrated a milestone in the late leader’s socialist revolution ahead of Venezuela’s presidential election.

Saturday marked the 11th anniversary of Chavez’s dramatic return to power after a two-day coup tacitly backed by the United States.

Venezuelan state television broadcast programs in honor of Chavez and portraying the opposition candidate in Sunday’s election, Henrique Capriles, as the political heir of a “right-wing oligarchy” that orchestrated the 2002 coup.

Pro-Chavez militias also gathered in commemoration at the Caracas military museum where the president’s coffin is on display.

One by one, the acting president decorated each member of the so-called Bolivarian militias, armed civilian groups that Chavez created in 2009 to help defend the revolution and prevent a repeat of the 2002 coup.

To shouts of “Chavez lives,” Maduro said: “Let’s honor his memory, and his legacy.”

Security stepped up ahead of Venezuelan elections

Security was stepped up in Caracas on Saturday as soldiers and police took to the streets of the capital on the eve of presidential elections, according to Voice of Russia, Interfax, Reuters.

Most opinion polls give acting President Nicolas Maduro, a strong lead over opposition challenger Henrique Capriles thanks perhaps to the late leader’s endorsement and the surge of grief and sympathy over his death from cancer last month.

Venezuela emerges in an atmosphere of expectation and sobriety on the eve of a historic election

Upon arrival in Caracas these days one can see that the upcoming election of April the 14th mobilized and divided the people of that country. Still inside the plane, a group of passengers made an impromptu rally.

At the border checkpoint and parking lots of Simon Bolivar International Airport there are endless queues of Venezuelans coming from all over the world to vote, despite the fact that, unlike some neighboring countries in the region such as Brazil, voting is not compulsory in the country.

Everything indicates that this rivalry between Nicolas Maduro and Henrique Caprilles brought the electoral activity of Venezuelans to its limit.

The campaign of the candidates stopped officially on Saturday, so before the elections there is a so called silence day. Still, the propaganda posters are scattered throughout the capital, nor can the local media obey the rules and isolate themselves from the election race despite the official ban.

M.D