Venezuelans Vote in Tight Presidential Race
Venezuelans are voting in what analysts expect is the toughest election leftist President Hugo Chavez has faced after nearly 14 years in power.
Ahead of Sunday's vote, opinion polls either had Chavez ahead of his challenger Henrique Capriles or roughly tied.
While Chavez's base remains strong among the country's poor, Capriles has electrified the opposition. The 40-year-old lawyer has conducted a national door-to-door campaign, criticizing the president on Venezuela's power outages, food shortages and high murder rate.
Also, a persistent question in the race is the president's health. Chavez says he has fully recovered from the cancer that was first discovered more than a year ago. The exact nature of his cancer has never been revealed.
If he wins his fourth term, the 57-year-old Chavez could serve until 2019, which would mark his 20th anniversary as Venezuela's president. Chavez is an outspoken critic of the United States who supports anti-U.S. governments around the world and has spent billions of dollars of Venezuela's oil money on social programs. If Capriles wins, a foreign policy shift is expected and an eventual loosening of state economic controls.
fuente: La Voz de América, http://www.voanews.com/content/venezuela-election/1521899.html
Ahead of Sunday's vote, opinion polls either had Chavez ahead of his challenger Henrique Capriles or roughly tied.
While Chavez's base remains strong among the country's poor, Capriles has electrified the opposition. The 40-year-old lawyer has conducted a national door-to-door campaign, criticizing the president on Venezuela's power outages, food shortages and high murder rate.
Also, a persistent question in the race is the president's health. Chavez says he has fully recovered from the cancer that was first discovered more than a year ago. The exact nature of his cancer has never been revealed.
If he wins his fourth term, the 57-year-old Chavez could serve until 2019, which would mark his 20th anniversary as Venezuela's president. Chavez is an outspoken critic of the United States who supports anti-U.S. governments around the world and has spent billions of dollars of Venezuela's oil money on social programs. If Capriles wins, a foreign policy shift is expected and an eventual loosening of state economic controls.
fuente: La Voz de América, http://www.voanews.com/content/venezuela-election/1521899.html
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