Handout picture released by the Venezuelan presidency shows Venezuela’s acting President Nicolas Maduro (left) and Argentina’s football legend Diego Maradona visiting the tomb of late President Hugo Chavez, at an old military barracks perched in a hillside in Caracas.
CARACAS: Venezuela’s government mobilised behind Hugo Chavez’s image yesterday as the opposition complained that campaign rules were being ignored on the eve of a vote to choose a successor to the late leader.
Although the campaign officially ended late Thursday, acting President Nicolas Maduro has regularly appeared on state-run television, calling on voters to flock to the polls today and vowing to carry on his mentor’s socialist revolution.
Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, who accused the government of unfairly using state media and funds during the campaign, wrote on Twitter that channel VTV was “shamelessly violating the electoral rules.”
Maduro planned to visit the Caracas hillside barracks where Chavez was laid to rest to commemorate the creation of a civilian militia formed by the late president after a short-lived coup against him in April
2002.
The event will “celebrate Chavez’s return to power” 11 years ago on April 13, when loyal troops brought him back to the presidency after his brief, 47-hour ouster, a presidency source
told AFP.
Information Minister Ernesto Villegas called for a “tuitazo,” or a massive Twitter campaign to send messages about Chavez. He also wrote a series of Tweets criticising the opposition.
Maduro already visited the tomb on Friday with Argentine football icon Diego Maradona, a close friend of Chavez, and he used the airtime to urge Venezuelans to vote to “continue the legacy” of the late president.
The acting president railed against the “putschist right-wing” after claiming throughout the campaign that opponents and former US officials were plotting to destabilise the nation.
On Friday, Vice President Jorge Arreaza and other top officials displayed gun magazines that were seized from a company and announced that alleged Colombian paramilitaries were detained.
The opposition voiced doubts about the latest claims and countered that the government’s accusations were “completely false.”
AFP
