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Venezuela's Capriles Vows to End Cuba Giveaways

Venezuela's opposition leader and presidential candidate Henrique Capriles (C) speaks during a meeting with students in Maracaibo, March 18, 2013.

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Reuters

March 18, 2013

CARACAS — Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles on Monday vowed to end the OPEC nation's shipments of subsidized oil to communist-run Cuba, slamming acting President Nicolas Maduro as a puppet of Havana.

Capriles has berated Maduro as a weak imitation of the late Hugo Chavez, whose death two weeks ago convulsed the country and triggered the April 14 vote. The opposition also accuses the government of failing to fight crime and control inflation.

"The giveaways to other countries are going to end. Not another drop of oil will go toward financing the government of the Castros," Capriles said, referring to Cuba's present and past leaders, Raul and Fidel Castro.

"Nicolas is the candidate of Raul Castro; I'm the candidate of the Venezuelan people," Capriles said during a speech to university students in the oil-rich state of Zulia.

The election marks the first test of the "Chavismo" movement's ability to maintain the late leader's radical socialism after his death, and it will be crucial for regional allies that depend on Caracas for financing and cheap fuel.

A victory for Capriles, 40, would likely give global oil companies greater access to the world's largest crude reserves and offer investors more market-friendly policies after years of state-centered economics.

Venezuela's acting President Nicolas Maduro (L) speaks during an interview in Caracas, March 16, 2013, in this handout photo provided by the Miraflores Palace.

Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver seen as having the advantage in the vote, has vowed to continue Chavez's economic model that included frequent nationalizations and heavy regulation of private enterprise alongside generous social welfare programs that underpinned his popularity.

The youthful Capriles, who lost to Chavez by 11 percentage points in 2012, faces a delicate balancing act to highlight the flaws of Chavez's governance without appearing to be attacking the former president or seeking to tarnish his legacy.

Henrique Capriles

40 years old
Lost 2012 presidential election to Hugo Chavez
Governor of Venezuela's second-most populous state, Miranda
Jailed in 2002 for fomenting a protest near the Cuban Embassy, later acquitted
Was Venezuela's youngest legislator
Lawyer by training
Descendant of immigrants from Europe

He has exchanged furious barbs with Maduro since launching his candidacy and renewed his criticisms from last year's campaign over day-to-day problems such as unchecked crime, product shortages and high cost of living.

"Every day it's harder to find food, and every day food is more expensive," Capriles said. "This model is not viable."

He said halting cheap oil sales to Cuba would free up resources to boost public employee salaries by 40 percent to make up for inflation that is one of the region's highest.

Vicious Campaign

Ties to Cuba are likely to remain a central part of the campaign. Capriles for months accused authorities of compromising the country's sovereignty by letting Chavez govern for two months from a Havana hospital.

Venezuela provides close to 100,000 barrels per day of oil to Cuba in exchange for a host of services including doctors that staff free health clinics in slums and rural areas.

Supporters say it has helped expand access to health care, while critics call it a mere subsidy to the Castro government.

Maduro's frequent visits to the island during Chavez's two-month convalescence there led opposition leaders to joke that he had picked up a Cuban accent.

Thousands of people follow the funeral parade of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez in Caracas, March 15, 2013.

The emotional outpouring of affection for Chavez following his March 5 death, along with ample use of government television broadcasts, has helped give Maduro a leg up in the race.

Millions of bereaved supporters have lined up before Chavez's remains to pay respects to a leader who was loved by many of the country's poor but reviled by adversaries who called him a fledgling dictator.

Maduro Lead

Two recent opinion polls showed Capriles trailing Maduro.

Nicolas Maduro

Venezuelan vice president, Hugo Chavez's chosen successor
Former foreign minister
Was a member of assembly that drafted a new constitution after Chavez's 1998 election
Campaigned for Mr. Chavez's release from prison in the 1990s
50 years old, former bus driver

Respected local pollster Datanalisis gave Maduro 46.4 percent versus 34.3 percent for Capriles in a survey carried out before Chavez's death.

He enraged Maduro by accusing him of repeatedly lying about the late president's two-year battle with cancer, and of then cynically using his death as a campaign tool. He later apologized to Chavez's family if his words had offended them.

Maduro last week described a plot by "far right" U.S. elements linked to two senior former members of the George W. Bush administration to kill Capriles.

Both officials denied the charges.

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by: Walter Teague, III from: Maryland

March 19, 2013 9:28 PM

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A real journalist would research just what would change if Capriles did cut off the cheap oil to Cuba in return for thousands of health care workers, also much less expensive than the too scare local professionals. The "critics call it a mere subsidy to the Castro government."? I doubt these critics need to avail themselves of free or cheap local clinics. So why should they care if poorer Venezuelans lost out. Capriles argues a 40% increase to some workers. Sounds like phony math and once again, disinterest or even dislike of the "poor," whether they are Venezuelan or Cuban.

by: Davi from: Brasil

March 19, 2013 8:15 AM

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If Nicolas Maduro is a puppet of Havana,
then Capriles is a puppet of D.C.

by: JKF from: Ottawa, Canada

March 18, 2013 9:26 PM

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Capriles needs to stick to the bread and butter issues, like bettering the life of all Venezuelans, improving Universities and schools to make sure that Venezuelans do not have to end up in Cuba for any complex medical treament. And why did not Maduro send Chavez to Europe for treatment? like to Germany or Britain, instead of Cuba; Cuba is a country with very good basic medicine, but very old medical procedures and techniques for complex illneses, compared to Europe and even the USA . Cuba laggs behind technologically very significantly, and notwithstanding their hard working doctors, they just do not have the resources to carry out medical frontier procedures and cure/help very ill patients. Who is the beneficiary of Chavez's death- MADURO.
I am suspicious, Maduro sending Chavez to Cuba was a death sentence for Chavez, in my opinion, because Cuba is not in very good economic shape, thus can't afford the best that modern medicine has to offer. Maduro at best is not very knowledgeable, at worst he did not really care about Chavez's survival; in either case he will not ensure that Venezuelan's get the most out of their dwindling natural resouce outputs. Venezuela needs an educated, visionary technocrat, or Venezuela, notwithstanding its oil, will continue its steadly declining economic situation; people have less and less. Both Capriles and the people need to wake up!