Hugo Chavez formally launches reelection bid

“I would like to first thank Christ the Redeemer for allowing me to get
through this difficult year and be with the Venezuelan people to start this
battle,” said Chavez, who insists he is fully recovered and fit to
lead.

“We will fight every day, and night after night, to find 10 million
votes and give the bourgeoisie another explosive knockout,” he added,
describing his opponent as “boring.”

The youthful and telegenic Capriles, 39, is the former governor of Miranda
state.

Venezuela‘s
sometimes fractious opposition has united behind Capriles, who opened his
campaign in the remote indigenous community of Kumarakapay near the
Brazilian border.

“We will be better because Venezuela deserves to be better,” said
Capriles, wearing a native headdress and a shirt bearing the colours of the
national flag.

“There is nothing that can beat the storm of progress.”

He was due to travel later to the other end of the country to the town of
Guajira in northwestern Zulia state near the Colombian border, in an attempt
to show the Chavez government has neglected those areas.

Most opinion polls put Chavez firmly in the lead, but Capriles is counting on
undecided voters – estimated at 35 per cent of the electorate – to help him
win.

Capriles has claimed he will handily defeat Chavez, even predicting a 10-point
margin of victory. He has vowed to tackle what he calls the country’s three
main problems – poverty, unemployment and violence.

The Venezuelan government has disclosed few details about Chavez’s health. In
May, Chavez sought treatment in Cuba, his closest regional ally, after a
recurrence of the cancer he first disclosed last year.

Doctors in Havana removed a tumour from his pelvic area last June, but after
pronouncing himself fully recovered from cancer, Chavez reported a new
lesion in February and returned to Cuba for additional surgery and
radiotherapy.

Source: agencies

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