The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nicolas Maduro

  • Venezuela announces post-Chavez election date

    Venezuela announces post-Chavez election date

    A presidential election to replace late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez will be held on 14 April, the country’s electoral commission has said.

    BBC says the announcement follows the appointment of Mr. Chavez’s favoured successor, Nicolas Maduro, as acting president.

    Hugo Chavez died on 5 March after a long battle with cancer.

    Mr. Maduro will run as the governing party candidate with Henrique Capriles expected to stand for the opposition.

    Mr. Chavez – who led Venezuela for 14 years – won last October’s election against Mr. Capriles, polling 54 per cent of the vote to Mr. Capriles’s 44 per cent.

    As Mr. Chavez’s health worsened, he announced that his vice-president, Mr. Maduro, should succeed him.

    Mr. Maduro, 50, has pledged to carry on the former president’s leftist policies and opinion polls have shown him as the favourite to win the next election.

    The head of the electoral commission, Tibisay Lucena, said the candidates would have to register for the race by Monday.

    Shortly after his announcement, the head of the opposition coalition officially proposed Mr. Capriles, 40, as their presidential candidate.

    Mr. Capriles tweeted that he was grateful to be chosen, adding that he was analysing the statement from the electoral commission.

    “In the following hours I will give my decision,” he said.

    Mr. Capriles – a lawyer by training – is governor of the state of Miranda.

     

  • Leaders gather for Chavez funeral

    Leaders gather for Chavez funeral

    Leaders from Latin America and beyond are gathering in the Venezuelan capital Caracas for the funeral of President Hugo Chavez.

    After the funeral, Mr. Chavez’s body will be taken to a military museum to lie in state for another seven days, BBC reports.

    More than two million mourners have already filed past his body at a military academy.

    Mr. Chavez’s body is to be embalmed and placed on permanent display, Vice-President Nicolas Maduro said.

    Later on Friday, Mr. Maduro is due to be sworn in as acting president. As such, he must call elections within 30 days.

    Hugo Chavez, who led Venezuela for 14 years, died on Tuesday aged 58 after a long battle with cancer.

    More than 30 heads of state are expected to attend Friday’s funeral including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Cuban President Raul Castro and Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko.

    President Ahmadinejad has praised Mr. Chavez as a “martyr” and a “wise and revolutionary leader.”

    United States Congressman Gregory Meeks and former Congressman William Delahunt will represent the country. Mr. Chavez was a fierce critic of Washington.

    Mr. Maduro said that Mr. Chavez’s body would be embalmed “like Lenin and Mao Zedong”, and put on display for at least another seven days.

    The body will be moved to the Caracas military museum where in 1992 Mr. Chavez – as an army officer – was captured after leading a failed coup.