VENEZUELA: As he aspires to be Venezuela's next president, young opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski predicts that whoever faces off against President Hugo Chavez in the 2012 general elections will win

Record ID: 277585

  • Title: VENEZUELA: As he aspires to be Venezuela's next president, young opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski predicts that whoever faces off against President Hugo Chavez in the 2012 general elections will win
  • Date: 23rd September 2011
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER AND PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL, HENRIQUE CAPRILES RADONSKI, GREETING SUPPORTERS
  • Embargoed: 8th October 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of
  • Country: Venezuela
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAEKBTS5V3G0GLD8EDNVGI95QSU
  • Story Text: Venezuela's young opposition leader and leading aspirant for the country's 2012 presidential election, Henrique Capriles Radonski, says he is focused not just the opposition primaries, but on defeating in the general election President Hugo Chavez who has held the presidency for more than a decade.
    Capriles resembles the man he is dead-set on defeating in that he is a smooth tongued, charismatic persona who loves sport and constantly emphasizes social projects in the slums.
    The 39-year-old governor of Venezuela's second-most populous state, Miranda, does not, however, believe in statist economics, indefinite re-election for presidents, the evils of capitalism or other central tenets of Chavez's "revolution."
    A year before the South American OPEC nation's election -- set for October 7, 2012 -- Capriles leads polls to win the opposition primary vote in February and then have a crack at unseating Chavez.
    "My process is not trying. My objective is not seeing how… I don't want to be a candidate, I want to be president. I am not aspiring to the candidacy; I am aspiring to be president. And to be president, the process is not about internal wear and tear. The process is looking where you need to be looking, which is at the election, the final election, the real election. How do I see the primaries? As a great opportunity to participate, to build enthusiasm, to generate a wave of luck. Like the sea, when a wave begins to gain strength. That's how I see the primaries, like a starting point," Capriles said.
    A law graduate, Capriles became Venezuela's youngest legislator at the age of 26, then won the mayorship of a Caracas municipality before beating a die-hard Chavez loyalist, Diosdado Cabello, to the Miranda governor's office in 2008.
    While Capriles' eyes are on next year's presidential election, he first has to get through the February 12 primary.
    His main rivals appear to be Zulia state governor Pablo Perez, and a former Caracas district mayor, Leopoldo Lopez.
    Like Capriles, they are part of a new generation of younger politicians who have come to the fore in opposition circles.
    The Miranda governor exudes confidence, but says whoever takes the primary will defeat the president in the general election.
    "President Chavez's only option is to win the election, like ours. But he [Chavez's challenger] has it. If he really goes for it, the competitor is better positioned. The most important option, in my opinion, is to sentence him [Chavez] to defeat. Whoever goes against him is going to win the election," Capriles said.
    Polls show Venezuelans fairly evenly divided between government supporters and opponents, with a large proportion of undecided voters in the middle.
    Still, Capriles will have his work cut out to combat Chavez's formidable personality -- provided the president's recovery from cancer allows him to run a strong re-election campaign -- and vast financial resources from the nation's oil sales.
    Chavez too has already been out an the election circuit trying to undercut his opponents he refers to as the "squalid."
    "It smells like 2012 today. It smelled like 2012. Because I say to the squalid [opposition] gentlemen. Because they're firing at me from all sides. I hardly attack them. 'Chavez this, Chavez that.' There are already about 10 candidates, pre-good-for-nothings. They're a bunch of pre-good-for-nothings," Chavez said.
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