Maduro trades barbs with U.S. over Venezuela election

By Daniel Wallis and Enrique Andres Pretel

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles distanced himself from post-election street violence after seven fatalities threatened to turn the South American OPEC nation's vote dispute into a full-blown crisis.

Capriles had planned to lead a march on the National Electoral Council (CNE) on Wednesday to demand a recount after official results gave a narrow win to Nicolas Maduro, the chosen successor of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

But the opposition leader canceled the rally on Tuesday, saying the government had plotted to "infiltrate" it, start trouble and blame it on him.

"To all my followers ... this is a peaceful quarrel. Whoever is involved in violence is not part of this project, is not with me," Capriles told reporters. "It is doing me harm."

The government earlier said seven people were killed on Monday and accused Capriles' supporters of attacking ruling Socialist Party offices and people celebrating Maduro's victory.

Maduro earlier accused the opposition of trying to trigger a coup d'etat and said he would not allow the planned march to go ahead. His government is threatening legal action against Capriles.

About 135 people were arrested and more than 60 hurt during Monday's violent clashes, including one woman whom a mob tried to burn alive, officials said.

In one well-off Caracas neighborhood, police fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse masked youths who chanted "fraud" as they blocked streets, burnt tires and threw stones.

Protests were much quieter on Tuesday with thousands of Capriles' followers holding peaceful rallies outside CNE offices around the country.

Capriles says the government is responsible for the violence because it denied his camp's demands for a full recount.

Maduro won with 50.8 percent of the vote against Capriles' 49.0 percent, according to the electoral authority. He is due to be formally sworn in on Friday.

A continuation of violent protests could hurt the opposition's democratic standing, despite having achieved its best showing in a presidential poll since the Chavez era began, and just as Capriles has consolidated himself as its leader.

The government has forcefully denounced the violence as part of a "fascist" plan to destabilize the country and set the stage for a re-run of a brief 2002 coup against Chavez.

Maduro held a meeting on Tuesday with senior executives of state oil company PDVSA, who stood up to chant "They won't return!", referring to politicians who ruled before Chavez won power in 1998 and launched his self-styled socialist revolution.

IRREGULARITIES

Maduro campaigned for election on a promise to continue his late boss's hardline socialist policies. He had a big lead in polls but that evaporated in the final days and the result was much closer than his team had expected.

Capriles says he is sure he won the election and that his team has evidence of 3,200 irregularities, from voters using fake IDs to intimidation of volunteers at polling centers.

Opposition sources say their count showed Capriles received an extra 300,000 to 400,000 votes that did not appear in the official tally.

The CNE has refused to hold a recount, saying an audit of ballots from 54 percent of the polling centers, in a widely respected electronic voting system, had already been done.

Maduro initially said he was open to a recount but has changed his position. He has called on his supporters to demonstrate all week, culminating in a big rally in Caracas on Friday to coincide with his inauguration ceremony.

He jumped on Capriles' cancellation of Wednesday's march, saying the opposition leader had started to "backpedal."

"But no matter how much they retreat, they'll have to face justice sooner rather than later," Maduro said before turning on Capriles. "You are responsible for this. Don't disguise yourself as a pacifist."

In a session of Congress on Tuesday, 'Chavista' legislators accusing Capriles of inciting bloodshed and called for him to face a formal investigation and charges. Two opposition lawmakers said they were insulted and punched by pro-government legislators.

Maduro's slight margin of victory has raised doubts about whether the disparate alliance that formed around Chavez during his 14 years in power can hold together without him.

(Reporting by Daniel Wallis and Enrique Andres Pretel; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Lisa Shumaker)

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Venezuela's Maduro says opposition seeking coup

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Days before Venezuela vote, Maduro vows wage hikes

By Mario Naranjo

CARACAS (Reuters) - Acting President Nicolas Maduro promised on Tuesday to hike Venezuela's minimum wage by about 40 percent if he is elected in a weekend vote to replace late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

His opponent Henrique Capriles has vowed a similar salary rise as both men adopt some Chavez-style populism on the campaign trail ahead of Sunday's vote.

Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver named by Chavez as his heir, is leading opinion polls. But Capriles, a 40-year-old state governor, is predicting a late surge to tip it for him.

The election will not only determine the future of "Chavismo" socialism in Venezuela but also who controls the OPEC member's vast oil reserves and whether aid to a clutch of left-leaning nations around the region will continue.

Flanked by former fellow transport workers, Maduro told a rally in Caracas that the 2,047 bolivar monthly minimum wage ($325 at the official exchange rate) would be raised 20 percent in May, 10 percent in September, and between 5-10 percent in November.

"The accumulated increase will be between 38-45 percent on average, that's what I'm announcing, comrades," Maduro said, to roars from his supporters.

Inflation in Venezuela is the highest in the Americas, at 20 percent last year and probably similar in 2013.

Maduro is vowing to stay faithful to his former boss' policies, which ranged from controversial nationalizations to wildly popular slum welfare projects, while Capriles wants to implement a Brazilian-style political model in Venezuela.

(Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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Venezuela's Maduro says campaign sabotage suspects arrested

By Daniel Wallis and Marianna Parraga

CARACAS (Reuters) - Acting President Nicolas Maduro said on Friday that Venezuelan authorities have arrested several people suspected of plotting to sabotage one of his campaign rallies before an April 14 election by cutting the power.

Both sides have accused the other of dirty tricks during a bitter run-up to the vote to choose the successor to late socialist leader Hugo Chavez. Opinion polls give Maduro a double-digit lead over his opposition rival, Henrique Capriles.

"We've captured some of the saboteurs. ... One was caught red-handed," Maduro said in a televised meeting with commanders of the armed forces.

His late boss often dramatically unveiled alleged plots against his government, ranging from infrastructure sabotage to assassination plans.

"They were going to cut the electricity to the whole of Merida (state) while I was at the rally," Maduro added.

"Who is directing this war against our country? ... There are two options here: you are either for the fatherland or you're against it."

Maduro, who visited Merida on Wednesday, gave no other details about the arrests. He has ordered the military to tighten security at electricity installations.

Both sides are courting the military, which will play an important role in next Sunday's election by guarding the voting materials and polling centers.

Defense Minister Diego Molero has made statements pledging the loyalty of the armed forces to Maduro - something Capriles complains is unconstitutional.

Campaigning on the Caribbean island of Margarita this week, Capriles said it was the duty of the armed forces to protect the will of the people on April 14.

He frequently says soldiers suffer from many of the same daily problems that trouble all Venezuelans: high crime rates, inflation, and poor public services.

The vote in the South American OPEC member of 29 million people will decide not only the future of "Chavismo" socialism but also control of the world's biggest oil reserves and economic aid to a handful of left-leaning nations round the region.

The government held a ceremony at a military barracks on a Caracas hilltop to mark the exact one-month anniversary of Chavez's death from cancer. Soldiers played bugles and fired cannons in honor of the leader who was seen as a savior by millions but derided as an autocrat by his critics.

Maduro stood with top government officials and members of Chavez's family beside a marble sarcophagus where the former president's remains are encased.

FRAUD CLAIMS?

Capriles has also said that if he wins he will end "Cuban meddling" in the military. During his 14 years in power, Chavez forged close ties with communist-led Havana.

Capriles has demanded an explanation from the electoral authorities after the opposition said an audit of the voting system by both sides revealed the ruling Socialist Party had a confidential code to open 45,000 electronic polling machines.

Government officials say such allegations were laying the ground for the opposition to invent fraud claims after the vote, and that the code was only used for maintenance.

As the election nears, Capriles has gone on the attack against Maduro and his top officials, accusing them of being only "skin-deep" socialists who pay lip service to Chavez's ideology but are more interested in lining their pockets.

The government paints him as the puppet of a rich and venal Venezuelan elite and its "imperialist" friends in Washington.

On Friday, dozens of writers, artists and musicians attended an upbeat Capriles rally at a theater in a well-off Caracas neighborhood, taking the stage to sing, tell stories and read out messages calling for political change.

"I don't want this to end like this: a meeting between friends where we take some photos of each other and that's it," Capriles said, wearing a baseball cap and track suit top in the colors of the Venezuelan flag.

"I need this to go further. We have a historic opportunity."

(Additional reporting by Eyanir Chinea and Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Philip Barbara)

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Maduro plays up his bus-driver roots for Venezuela campaign

By Daniel Wallis

CARACAS (Reuters) - Gripping the wheel and grinning at passengers, acting President Nicolas Maduro drives a bus to campaign rallies before an election he hopes will let him steer Venezuela to six more years of hardline socialism.

From banners all around him, the image of the man Maduro calls his "father," the late Hugo Chavez, beams beatifically and salutes.

"Chavez sets the route, Maduro takes the wheel!" is the catchy slogan of the government's campaign ahead of the presidential election next Sunday to choose Chavez's successor.

Playing up his working-class roots as a bus driver and union leader, Maduro promises to push forward Chavez's "21st century socialism" if he wins.

Opinion polls give him a double-digit lead over centrist opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.

At each campaign rally, the burly, mustachioed 50-year-old plays video of his late boss instructing his millions of supporters to vote for Maduro if the worst happened.

Chavez died of cancer on March 5.

Helped by a slick public relations campaign run by Brazilian strategists, the maverick former soldier easily won re-election in October despite being largely out of the public eye for weeks at a time during sessions of chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

After his death, state media went into overdrive, pushing their already adoring coverage of Chavez to near-religious levels.

That formidable machinery is now swinging behind Maduro.

In the most polished of his new campaign videos, to a backdrop of swirling strings, Venezuelans write messages such as "For the love of my culture" and "For the love of my children" on balloons, and then release them into the sky.

Finally, Chavez's face appears in the clouds, and he winks.

'MOUSTACHES OF MY FATHERLAND'

One light-hearted campaign video, "Maduro is in Fashion," features the candidate hugging children, dancing enthusiastically at a rally, and, of course, driving a bus.

At one point, a cheering female supporter runs alongside his convoy holding aloft two over-ripe bananas in a play on his name, which means "mature" in Spanish.

One tongue-in-cheek Facebook campaign run by Maduro supporters - "Moustaches of my Fatherland" - features hundreds of photos of voters with stick-on or photo-shopped facial hair.

Fake whiskers are also handed out at his rallies.

Maduro's campaign events usually also feature a second spot from another son of the working class made good - former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, an ex-shoeshine boy - endorsing his candidacy.

Capriles, the governor of Miranda state, has hit back with videos such as "Nicolas, you're the problem" and "Five Reasons for a Change" featuring crime, power cuts, nationalizations, poor hospitals and water shortages.

He accuses Maduro of being a bad copy of Chavez and of mawkishly using the former president's death to advance his own candidacy.

Maduro formally launched his campaign from the modest rural home where Chavez grew up. "We're all going in the bus of the fatherland, which has a driver. ... Here he is, Chavez's driver!" he said, pointing to himself.

As Chavez battled his illness last year, supporters in Caracas shantytowns created a series of campaign images and murals that showed the 58-year-old as a fit young "tough," rapping, boxing, playing basketball and pulling a wheelie on a motorcycle.

The same group has now turned its attention to promoting Maduro. One of its new images shows a young motor bike taxi driver sporting a bushy moustache like the candidate.

"Now we're tougher," it says.

Another shows a smiling Maduro with his arm round a much younger, equally happy-looking woman, with the slogan: "Me gustan maduros" ("I like older guys") in yet another play on his name.

BLAME THE DRIVER

Some of the new campaign images echo a saying sometimes seen on the back of Venezuelan buses: "If your daughter suffers and cries, it's because of a driver" - a self-aggrandizing phrase implying that transportation workers are all heart-breakers.

In Maduro's posters, "daughter" is replaced with "Capriles."

Supporters have also reveled in the fact that, as a younger man, Maduro used to play in a rock band called Enigma.

One campaign image shows him brandishing an electric guitar emblazoned with the word "socialism." Another has an amplifier bearing a slogan that now it is time to rock, "con Maduro, mas duro" ("with Maduro, harder").

As with the murals of a youthful, active Chavez, some of the pro-Maduro campaign imagery has drawn scorn from the opposition.

His recent account of how he was visited by Chavez's spirit in the form of a small bird that flew into a chapel where he was praying generated a torrent of online mockery.

The response of loyal "Chavistas" - the vast majority of whom are expected to comply with Chavez's wish that they vote for Maduro - was largely summed up in another image posted on social media.

"So you make bad jokes about Maduro. Tell me, how does it feel to know that, despite your mockery, he's going to be your new president?"

(Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Kieran Murray and Peter Cooney)

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Venezuelan leader Maduro has big poll lead over Capriles

By Brian Ellsworth

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's acting president, Nicolas Maduro, has a commanding 14-percentage point lead over opposition candidate Henrique Capriles ahead of next month's election, according to the first major poll published since the death of Hugo Chavez.

Maduro would win 49.2 percent of the April 14 vote compared with 34.8 percent for Capriles, according to the survey by pollster Datanalisis that was cited on Monday in a research note by Barclays Bank.

It followed other polls showing a solid lead for the 50-year-old former bus driver who has vowed to continue Chavez's state-centered economic policies built on heavy regulations of business and generous social welfare programs.

"Considering the short campaign period, the sympathy effect in the wake of Chavez's death, restrictions on the media, and the demobilization of the opposition after two defeats last year, Maduro remains the favorite," Barclays said.

Capriles, the 40-year-old governor of Miranda state, lost to Chavez in the presidential election last October, and allied candidates swept 20 of the 23 governorships in state elections in December.

Chavez's death two weeks ago convulsed the country and triggered a new election in the South American OPEC nation.

The vote 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.

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.

CAPRILES LASHES CUBA TIES

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.

The youthful Capriles faces a delicate balancing act to highlight the flaws of Chavez's governance without appearing to be attacking him or seeking to tarnish his legacy.

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.

At a campaign rally on Monday, Capriles vowed to end shipments of subsidized oil to communist-run Cuba, slamming Maduro as a puppet of Havana.

"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.

A victory for Capriles 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.

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.

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

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.

'HATEFUL MINORITY'

Supporters say it has helped expand access to healthcare, 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.

In a televised campaign meeting, Maduro lashed out at Capriles, accusing him of failing to control violent crime in Miranda.

Maduro said he planned to stage campaign rallies from the Andean highlands to the sweltering plains where Chavez grew up.

"Three weeks before the election we can say that the people have the triumph in their hands, but we have to guarantee that triumph by working hard," Maduro said, describing himself and top party leaders as "apostles" of Chavez.

"The battle here is between the people of Chavez, the patriotic people, and the hateful minority, the oligarchy that looted this country."

(Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Paul Simao)

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Venezuelan acting President Maduro has 14-point lead for April vote: poll

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan acting President Nicolas Maduro has 49.2 percent of potential votes, compared to 34.8 percent for opposition challenger Henrique Capriles, ahead of an April 14 election, a poll showed on Monday.

The survey, by local pollster Datanalisis, was published by New York-based Barclays bank.

(Reporting by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Eric Beech)

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Venezuela's Maduro accuses U.S. of "plot" to kill rival

By Daniel Wallis

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's acting president urged U.S. leader Barack Obama to stop what he called a plot by the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency to kill his opposition rival and trigger a coup before an April 14 election.

Nicolas Maduro said the plan was to blame his opponent's murder on the OPEC nation's government and to "fill Venezuelans with hate" as they prepare to go to vote following the death of socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

Maduro first mentioned a plot against his rival, Henrique Capriles, last week, blaming it on former Bush administration officials Roger Noriega and Otto Reich. Both rejected the allegations as untrue, outrageous and defamatory.

"I call on President Obama - Roger Noriega, Otto Reich, officials at the Pentagon and at the CIA are behind a plan to assassinate the right-wing presidential candidate to create chaos," Maduro said in a TV interview broadcast on Sunday.

Maduro, who is Chavez's preferred successor, said the purpose of the plot was to set off a coup and that his information came from "a very good source."

During his 14 years in power, the charismatic but divisive Chavez, who died March 5 after a two-year battle with cancer, often denounced U.S. plots against him and his "revolution." Critics dismissed those claims as a smokescreen to keep voters focused on a sense of "imperialist" threat.

In kicking off the opposition's campaign in the provinces on Saturday, Capriles said Maduro would be to blame if anything happened to him.

MADURO TO JOIN TWITTER

Capriles, a 40-year-old centrist state governor who cites Brazil as his economic model for Venezuela, accuses Maduro of using his boss's death as a mawkish campaign tool ahead of the April 14 vote.

Maduro, 50, a former bus driver who is trumpeting his working-class roots like Chavez, has a lead over Capriles of more than 10 percentage points, according to two recent opinion polls. Both were conducted before Chavez's death.

Maduro has sought to emulate the late president's common touch and emotional bond with voters but has struggled - beyond copying Chavez's bombastic rhetoric against foes at home and abroad.

In Sunday's interview, recorded at the military museum where Chavez's body was carried in a somber funeral procession on Friday after 10 days of mourning, Maduro said he had cried more when Chavez died than when his own parents passed away.

Later on Sunday, his campaign team plans to launch Maduro's official Twitter account in another move reminiscent of Chavez. Chavez's @chavezcandanga account had drawn more than 4 million followers before his death - making it the second most-followed presidential account after Obama's.

The election campaign began in a particularly nasty atmosphere, with both sides accusing each other of dirty tricks, and Capriles and Maduro landing very personalized blows.

At stake in the election is not only the future of Chavez's leftist revolution but also the continuation of Venezuelan oil subsidies and other aid crucial to the economies of leftist allies around Latin America, from Cuba to Bolivia.

Venezuela boasts the world's largest oil reserves.

(Additional reporting by Deisy Buitrago; Editing by Bill Trott)

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Maduro says Chavez permanent viewing unlikely

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's acting president says it is highly unlikely that Hugo Chavez will be embalmed for permanent viewing because the body was not properly prepared on time.

Nicolas Maduro said Wednesday during a speech at a government-run book fair that Russian experts consulted on the decision to embalm Chavez told officials it is probably not possible. He did not offer a further explanation.

Authorities say Chavez died on March 5.

The government announced two days later that he would be embalmed and placed on permanent display, like Vladimir Lenin, Ho Chi Minh and Mao Zedong.

In several videos recorded before his death, Chavez is seen saying he wishes to be buried in Sabaneta, his hometown.

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Venezuela's Maduro: from bus driver to Chavez's successor

By Daniel Wallis

CARACAS (Reuters) - Former bus driver and union leader Nicolas Maduro followed a simple strategy when he began filling in for cancer-stricken Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last year: copy his boss's policies, style and radical rhetoric.

Now that Chavez is dead, Maduro appears determined to stick with the same approach as he campaigns for a presidential election scheduled for April 14.

Maduro, who formally presented his candidacy on Monday, is expected to benefit from the outpouring of emotion over Chavez and comfortably defeat opposition leader Henrique Capriles, the centrist governor of Miranda state.

A firm Chavez loyalist, Maduro has so far given no hints that he might make significant policy changes if he is elected.

Knowing he might not recover, Chavez named the burly, mustachioed Maduro as his preferred successor in December before flying to Cuba for his fourth cancer operation in 18 months.

The move made Maduro, who had served six years as foreign minister and was named vice president only a few weeks earlier, the OPEC nation's de facto leader.

He was given the red, yellow and blue presidential sash on Friday, sworn in as acting president three days after Chavez's death from cancer. That gives him another advantage in the quick election campaign ahead.

Although unable to come anywhere near to matching Chavez's charisma, the 50-year-old Maduro has copied his hectoring style, grand historical references and vitriolic attacks on "treacherous" opponents.

"I am not Chavez, in terms of his intelligence, charisma, historic strength, leadership ability and spiritual grandeur," he told supporters at the weekend.

"I'm 'Chavista,' I'm a son of Chavez."

Like Chavez, Maduro has accused foes of plotting to assassinate him and blamed private businesses for causing Venezuela's economic problems with hoarding and what he denounces as "speculative attacks" on the bolivar currency.

Hours before Chavez's death, Maduro accused "imperialist" enemies of infecting Chavez with cancer - the kind of headline-grabbing claims against powerful foes that Chavez often used to whip up supporters during his 14 years of tumultuous rule.

On Sunday, he launched a blistering attack against Capriles, calling him a Nazi and "wretched loser" for daring to accuse officials of lying to minimize Chavez's illness.

TWO DECADES BESIDE CHAVEZ

As foreign minister, Maduro had a fairly dull image as a loyalist who never diverted from Chavez's line, although some saw him as an affable potential moderate who could use his talents as a union negotiator turned globe-trotting diplomat to build bridges with critics at home and abroad.

At times he has softened his rhetoric - for example, saying that it was only a "small number" of opposition figures who were "conspiring against the fatherland" - but he has taken a tough line more often than not.

If Maduro wins the election, he is expected to broadly continue the radical policies of the Chavez era, including nationalizations, tight state control of the economy and financial support for allies such as communist-led Cuba.

There is plenty of speculation that he might at some point try to ease tensions with business groups and the U.S. government but so far there is no firm evidence.

Still, his first priority is to win the election and that means marshalling support from across Chavez's coalition, which ranges from leftist ideologues to businessmen, and military officers to hard-line armed groups called colectivos. It would be much more difficult if he openly proposed a new direction.

Opposition critics have lampooned Maduro as a poor imitation of Chavez, saying he parrots his boss's words and ideas without the same charm or independent thought. Rivals say he is trying to cash in on a wave of empathy triggered by Chavez's death.

"You have used the body of the president for political campaigning," said Capriles, who won 44 percent support when he competed against Chavez at the last election in October.

Two recent polls showed Maduro ahead of Capriles, by more than 10 percentage points, in part because of Chavez's blessing.

Within the ruling Socialist Party, Maduro faces pressure, from ideological hard-liners as well as profiteers who enriched themselves under Chavez, to extend the state's grip over the economy and private enterprise.

Other than campaigning heavily on Chavez's blessing and his position as guarantor of revolutionary continuity, it is hard to see how Maduro's own policy plans might develop.

"Maduro remains an enigma," said Alberto Barrera Tyszka, who co-wrote a 2004 biography of Chavez called "Without Uniform."

"In these early days, he has tried to imitate Chavez in style, though without his grace and charisma."

In 1992, when Chavez was jailed for a failed coup that made him famous, Maduro took to the streets to demand his release and visited him in prison.

Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, led the legal team that helped get Chavez freed within two years, and she is also a former leader of the National Assembly. The two have long been seen as a power couple in the government.

One of Maduro's offices features a large portrait of the late Indian spiritual guru Sai Baba, whom he and Flores visited in 2005.

A rabble-rousing legislator who was on the front line of the successful effort to defeat a brief coup against Chavez in 2002, Maduro rose to head the National Assembly, swapping the blue jeans and plaid shirts of a union leader for sharp suits.

Even in his smarter attire, Maduro used to elbow through reporters to get to the appetizer table before presidential news conferences.

FRIEND OF CHINA, RUSSIA

As foreign minister, Maduro traveled widely, denouncing U.S. foreign policy and cultivating allies in emerging markets such as Russia and China, which would become a key financier.

"He has always followed Chavez unconditionally but not because he's not smart enough to do otherwise," said Vladimir Villegas, Venezuela's former ambassador to Mexico.

Alberto Vivas, a school friend of Maduro's, played baseball with the future vice president when they were teenagers, and then they worked together on the Caracas metro system. "Nicolas is very analytical and particularly intelligent," Vivas said.

Jose Albornoz, who worked alongside him as a legislator, praised his common touch.

"Nicolas is a person who can talk to anyone ... His work with unions taught him to communicate with his adversary," he said. "I think he could open a dialogue with (opposition leaders) to make sure his government is successful."

If he wins the election, Maduro will face a testing economic scenario after last month's devaluation of the bolivar currency, which followed heavy state spending ahead of Chavez's re-election last year.

Inflation is above 20 percent a year and oil production has stagnated even though Venezuela has the world's biggest reserves of crude.

The idea of a transition from Chavez to Maduro may have come from Cuba's Fidel Castro, Chavez's mentor who six years ago handed over power to his younger brother Raul after falling ill himself. The younger Castro has since begun a slow transition away from centrally planned communism.

More pragmatism from Maduro could help tackle problems like violent crime, inflation and unemployment that critics say went unchecked because of Chavez's focus on more ideological themes.

It is unclear what measures Maduro might be prepared to take if the economy took a turn for the worse.

While Chavez had a reputation for choosing top officials on the basis of loyalty and political views, people who have worked with Maduro say he looks for credentials and hard work.

"He's a real man of the people," said Ramon Torres, Ecuador's former ambassador to Venezuela.

Whatever his long-term plans, Maduro is sure to drop Chavez's name at every turn along the campaign trail, eulogizing him in gushing and quasi-messianic terms.

During the president's absence after his last surgery, Maduro peppered speeches with references to a state-backed campaign called "I am Chavez," and he once opened his shirt to show a T-shirt underneath bearing an image of his boss's eyes.

At the inauguration of one public transport project he strayed into an awkward metaphor: "Chavez is the cable car."

(Additional reporting by Girish Gupta, Mario Naranjo and Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Kieran Murray and Eric Beech)

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Venezuela opposition's strategy to expose Maduro "lies"

By Marianna Parraga

CARACAS (Reuters) - Opposition leader Henrique Capriles will campaign across Venezuela seeking to dispel the "lies" of Hugo Chavez's preferred successor as they duel for the presidency, a coalition leader said.

Leopoldo Lopez, a key member of Capriles' campaign team, said their strategy is to press the message that Chavez's protégé and former vice president, Nicolas Maduro, also shoulders responsibility for the government's failures.

Chavez died last week after 14 years in power and a two-year battle with cancer. The centrist Capriles, 40, is the governor of Miranda state. He is trailing in polls behind former trade unionist Maduro, who is now acting president.

"The government is going to carry the shield of Chavez's funeral and we are going to carry the shield of truth and respect," Lopez, 41, told Reuters. "From today on, we are going to campaign to unmask the government's lies."

The opposition accuses Maduro of misleading Venezuelans about the gravity of Chavez's illness, pretending to have held a five-hour working meeting with him just three days before his death, and lying about major national issues such as a recent currency devaluation and the causes of inflation.

The opposition is hoping turnout will slip among 'Chavistas' and it can attract support from swing voters who made up 10-15 percent of the electorate in the last presidential election in December.

"Henrique is going to crisscross the country. It won't be a campaign done from Caracas or done from TV cameras. It's going to be difficult, not just because the campaigning is going on during the funeral, but because it is being marked by the abuse of power, lies and scandals," Lopez said.

"Some people could abstain because voting for Chavez is not the same as voting for the other candidate. And it is up to us to maximize turnout."

Capriles ran an exhausting "house-by-house" campaign for most of 2012 up to the October election, traveling to the remotest parts of Venezuela in an effort to emphasize his personal stamina and draw attention to grassroots problems.

There is far less time in this campaign, but Capriles still plans to reach all Venezuela's 23 states in the coming month, mixing walkabouts with rallies, aides said.

"This is going to be a tough campaign, maybe tougher than the last ones," said Lopez.

DIFFERENT ELECTION?

Lopez, who runs the Popular Will movement that is part of the opposition coalition, said the political landscape has changed dramatically since the election in October that gave self-styled socialist Chavez a new mandate.

"The government will do everything possible to wrap the race in Chavez. Maduro does not have his own vision. His only electoral offering is to be Chavez's spokesman," he said.

Chavez left behind a polarized country.

The poor adored his populist touch. He was jovial with friends, antagonistic with "imperialist" enemies, and captivated audiences by telling jokes or singing folk songs.

His opponents, many of them from Venezuela's middle class and elite, say he squandered vast oil wealth, politicized the judiciary, centralized power, and wrecked the economy.

Capriles has accused Maduro of using Chavez's coffin as a campaign prop and said the Supreme Court ruling that allowed Maduro to stay on as acting president without stepping down to run was a farce.

In a war of words, Maduro has called Capriles a miserable fascist and a buddy of U.S. "imperialists."

"We have a race of just 30 days, full of abuses, designed by the government to make us give up," said Lopez.

"In the context of what's happening, we can't respond with flowers when they are throwing sparks, or with kisses when we receive threats."

Lopez's movement accused the government of running a dirty campaign against it by distributing leaflets on Monday that used the party's logo and Lopez's image, fist raised, alongside a call for Venezuelans to "set fire to the streets".

Government officials were not immediately available to respond to the opposition's allegation.

Lopez, who made his name as mayor of the wealthy Chacao district in Caracas and is a more powerful orator than Capriles, was once seen as a viable presidential candidate.

But the judiciary ruled that if he were to win he might not be allowed to govern because of a corruption charge. He says the case against him was trumped up and reopened last year to hurt the opposition.

"It is a different year, with a different adversary. The country is different," from the last campaign, Lopez said.

(Writing by Terry Wade; Editing by Simon Gardner and Christopher Wilson)

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Capriles, Maduro at each other's throats in Venezuela election race

By Andrew Cawthorne and Mario Naranjo

CARACAS (Reuters) - Presidential candidates Nicolas Maduro and Henrique Capriles have begun Venezuela's election race with scathing personal attacks even as mourners still file past Hugo Chavez's coffin.

Maduro, who was sworn in as acting president after Chavez died of cancer last week, is seen as favorite to win the April 14 election, bolstered by an oil-financed state apparatus and a wave of public sympathy over Chavez's death.

"I am not Chavez, but I am his son," Maduro told thousands of cheering, red-clad supporters as he formally presented his candidacy to the election board on Monday.

"I am you, a worker. You and I are Chavez, workers and soldiers of the fatherland," the former bus driver and union activist added after the crowd's emotions were whipped up by recordings of Chavez singing the national anthem.

Thumbing his nose at detractors who scoff at his qualifications, Maduro arrived driving a white bus, waving to supporters. His rally congested downtown, and Capriles sent aides to present his papers rather than going personally.

Chavez made clear before his fourth and last cancer operation in December that he wanted Maduro, his vice president and former foreign minister, to be his Socialist Party's candidate to succeed him if he died.

Maduro has vowed to continue the radical policies of Chavez's 14-year rule in the South American OPEC nation, including the popular use of vast oil revenues for social programs. But Capriles is promising a tough fight.

"Nicolas, it is you who are the problem ... you are the voice of lies," Capriles told reporters on Monday, accusing him of minimizing Chavez's medical condition while he prepared his candidacy.

"Death should never be used, particularly not for election campaign ends," added Capriles, who would struggle to govern if elected because the national assembly, courts and other major institutions are dominated by Chavez supporters.

At stake in the election is not only the future of Chavez's leftist "revolution," but the continuation of Venezuelan oil subsidies and other aid crucial to the economies of left-wing allies around Latin America, from Cuba to Bolivia.

Venezuela boasts the world's largest oil reserves.

Government officials said Capriles was playing with fire, offending Chavez's family and risking legal action by criticizing the handling of his illness and death.

"You can see the disgusting face of the fascist that he is," a visibly furious Maduro said, alleging that the opposition was hoping to stir up violence.

SLURS

Capriles, a descendant of Polish Jews on his mother's side, was a victim of racist and homophobic slurs from Chavez supporters last year. Maduro appeared to allude to his rival's sexuality during Monday's rally.

"I do have a wife, you know? I do like women!" he told the crowd with his wife Cilia Flores at his side, who has served as attorney general but is stepping down to join her husband's campaign.

Though single, Capriles has had various high-profile girlfriends in the past. He scoffs at the personal insults, saying they illustrate the government's aggressive mindset.

"I want to send a message of ... rejection about Nicolas' homophobic declarations," Capriles said. "It is not the first time. His is a message of exclusion."

Shaken by Chavez's death and now immersed in an ugly election campaign, Venezuelans saw some semblance of normality return on Monday as most schools and shops reopened after being closed for most of last week.

Chavez's many local detractors are keeping a low profile.

But they say his memory is being burnished to forget less savory parts of his rule like the bullying of opponents and stifling of private businesses with nationalizations.

The official mourning period for Chavez ends on Tuesday. However, the government extended a temporary ban on alcohol and carrying firearms through March 16.

Several million have paid their respects at his coffin at a military academy in a dramatic outpouring of grief.

Though criticized by many for his authoritarian tendencies and handling of the economy, Chavez was loved by millions, especially the poor, because of his own humble background, plain language and attacks on global "imperialists" and the domestic "elite," as well as his welfare policies in Venezuela's slums.

In death, he is earning a near-religious status among supporters, perhaps akin to that of Argentina's former populist ruler Juan Peron and his deeply loved wife Eva Peron.

State television has been playing speeches and appearances by Chavez over and over, next to a banner saying "Chavez lives forever."

OPPOSITION'S UPHILL STRUGGLE

Though there are hopes for a post-Chavez rapprochement between ideological foes Venezuela and the United States, a diplomatic spat worsened on Monday when Washington expelled two Venezuelan diplomats in a tit-for-tat retaliation.

Two U.S. military attaches were ordered out last week, on the day of Chavez's death, for allegedly conspiring with locals against the government.

Venezuela's only opposition TV channel, Globovision, said on Monday it had accepted a buyout offer because of financial troubles and frequent tangles with the government.

A local businessman is buying the channel and it was not immediately clear if its editorial line would change. The sale will close after the election.

Capriles, a 40-year-old centrist governor who describes himself as a "progressive" and an admirer of Brazil's political model, ran in the last presidential election in October, taking 44 percent of the votes, but was unable to prevent Chavez's re-election.

While attacking Maduro's handling of the crisis over Chavez's cancer, Capriles will try to turn the focus of the month-long election campaign to the many day-to-day problems afflicting Venezuelans, from electricity cuts to crime and an inflation rate that is among the world's highest.

Maduro, 50, who echoes Chavez's anti-imperialist rhetoric, is sure to make his former boss the centerpiece of his campaign while casting himself as the only heir.

On Monday, though, he did promise a new anti-crime drive, and to deepen Chavez's social programs, known as "missions," in the slums. He also sought to blame sky high crime levels, which worsened dramatically during Chavez's years in power, on Venezuela's wealthy, saying they had ignored festering social problems and turned their back on the poor.

Two opinion polls before Chavez's death gave Maduro a lead of more than 10 percentage points.

"This is going to be a really tough campaign for us, we know," said an aide at Capriles' office in Caracas.

"It's hard to get everyone enthused and pumped again. We've only got a month, and we're fighting Chavez's ghost, not Maduro. But believe me, we'll give it our best."

(Additional reporting by Simon Gardner, Terry Wade, Ana Isabel Martinez, Marianna Parraga and Mario Naranjo; Editing by Kieran Murray, Daniel Wallis, Sandra Maler, Lisa Shumaker and Paul Simao)

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Venezuela's Maduro: from bus driver to Chavez's successor

By Daniel Wallis

CARACAS (Reuters) - Former bus driver and union leader Nicolas Maduro followed a simple strategy when he began filling in for cancer-stricken Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last year: copy his boss's policies, style and radical rhetoric.

Now that Chavez is dead, Maduro appears determined to stick with the same approach as he campaigns for a presidential election scheduled for April 14.

Maduro, who formally presented his candidacy on Monday, is expected to benefit from the outpouring of emotion over Chavez and comfortably defeat opposition leader Henrique Capriles, the centrist governor of Miranda state.

A firm Chavez loyalist, Maduro has so far given no hints that he might make significant policy changes if he is elected.

Knowing he might not recover, Chavez named the burly, mustachioed Maduro as his preferred successor in December before flying to Cuba for his fourth cancer operation in 18 months.

The move made Maduro, who had served six years as foreign minister and was named vice president only a few weeks earlier, the OPEC nation's de facto leader.

He was given the red, yellow and blue presidential sash on Friday, sworn in as acting president three days after Chavez's death from cancer. That gives him another advantage in the quick election campaign ahead.

Although unable to come anywhere near to matching Chavez's charisma, the 50-year-old Maduro has copied his hectoring style, grand historical references and vitriolic attacks on "treacherous" opponents.

"I am not Chavez, in terms of his intelligence, charisma, historic strength, leadership ability and spiritual grandeur," he told supporters at the weekend.

"I'm 'Chavista,' I'm a son of Chavez."

Like Chavez, Maduro has accused foes of plotting to assassinate him and blamed private businesses for causing Venezuela's economic problems with hoarding and what he denounces as "speculative attacks" on the bolivar currency.

Hours before Chavez's death, Maduro accused "imperialist" enemies of infecting Chavez with cancer - the kind of headline-grabbing claims against powerful foes that Chavez often used to whip up supporters during his 14 years of tumultuous rule.

On Sunday, he launched a blistering attack against Capriles, calling him a Nazi and "wretched loser" for daring to accuse officials of lying to minimize Chavez's illness.

TWO DECADES BESIDE CHAVEZ

As foreign minister, Maduro had a fairly dull image as a loyalist who never diverted from Chavez's line, although some saw him as an affable potential moderate who could use his talents as a union negotiator turned globe-trotting diplomat to build bridges with critics at home and abroad.

At times he has softened his rhetoric - for example, saying that it was only a "small number" of opposition figures who were "conspiring against the fatherland" - but he has taken a tough line more often than not.

If Maduro wins the election, he is expected to broadly continue the radical policies of the Chavez era, including nationalizations, tight state control of the economy and financial support for allies such as communist-led Cuba.

There is plenty of speculation that he might at some point try to ease tensions with business groups and the U.S. government but so far there is no firm evidence.

Still, his first priority is to win the election and that means marshalling support from across Chavez's coalition, which ranges from leftist ideologues to businessmen, and military officers to hard-line armed groups called colectivos. It would be much more difficult if he openly proposed a new direction.

Opposition critics have lampooned Maduro as a poor imitation of Chavez, saying he parrots his boss's words and ideas without the same charm or independent thought. Rivals say he is trying to cash in on a wave of empathy triggered by Chavez's death.

"You have used the body of the president for political campaigning," said Capriles, who won 44 percent support when he competed against Chavez at the last election in October.

Two recent polls showed Maduro ahead of Capriles, by more than 10 percentage points, in part because of Chavez's blessing.

Within the ruling Socialist Party, Maduro faces pressure, from ideological hard-liners as well as profiteers who enriched themselves under Chavez, to extend the state's grip over the economy and private enterprise.

Other than campaigning heavily on Chavez's blessing and his position as guarantor of revolutionary continuity, it is hard to see how Maduro's own policy plans might develop.

"Maduro remains an enigma," said Alberto Barrera Tyszka, who co-wrote a 2004 biography of Chavez called "Without Uniform."

"In these early days, he has tried to imitate Chavez in style, though without his grace and charisma."

In 1992, when Chavez was jailed for a failed coup that made him famous, Maduro took to the streets to demand his release and visited him in prison.

Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, led the legal team that helped get Chavez freed within two years, and she is also a former leader of the National Assembly. The two have long been seen as a power couple in the government.

One of Maduro's offices features a large portrait of the late Indian spiritual guru Sai Baba, whom he and Flores visited in 2005.

A rabble-rousing legislator who was on the front line of the successful effort to defeat a brief coup against Chavez in 2002, Maduro rose to head the National Assembly, swapping the blue jeans and plaid shirts of a union leader for sharp suits.

Even in his smarter attire, Maduro used to elbow through reporters to get to the appetizer table before presidential news conferences.

FRIEND OF CHINA, RUSSIA

As foreign minister, Maduro traveled widely, denouncing U.S. foreign policy and cultivating allies in emerging markets such as Russia and China, which would become a key financier.

"He has always followed Chavez unconditionally but not because he's not smart enough to do otherwise," said Vladimir Villegas, Venezuela's former ambassador to Mexico.

Alberto Vivas, a school friend of Maduro's, played baseball with the future vice president when they were teenagers, and then they worked together on the Caracas metro system. "Nicolas is very analytical and particularly intelligent," Vivas said.

Jose Albornoz, who worked alongside him as a legislator, praised his common touch.

"Nicolas is a person who can talk to anyone ... His work with unions taught him to communicate with his adversary," he said. "I think he could open a dialogue with (opposition leaders) to make sure his government is successful."

If he wins the election, Maduro will face a testing economic scenario after last month's devaluation of the bolivar currency, which followed heavy state spending ahead of Chavez's re-election last year.

Inflation is above 20 percent a year and oil production has stagnated even though Venezuela has the world's biggest reserves of crude.

The idea of a transition from Chavez to Maduro may have come from Cuba's Fidel Castro, Chavez's mentor who six years ago handed over power to his younger brother Raul after falling ill himself. The younger Castro has since begun a slow transition away from centrally planned communism.

More pragmatism from Maduro could help tackle problems like violent crime, inflation and unemployment that critics say went unchecked because of Chavez's focus on more ideological themes.

It is unclear what measures Maduro might be prepared to take if the economy took a turn for the worse.

While Chavez had a reputation for choosing top officials on the basis of loyalty and political views, people who have worked with Maduro say he looks for credentials and hard work.

"He's a real man of the people," said Ramon Torres, Ecuador's former ambassador to Venezuela.

Whatever his long-term plans, Maduro is sure to drop Chavez's name at every turn along the campaign trail, eulogizing him in gushing and quasi-messianic terms.

During the president's absence after his last surgery, Maduro peppered speeches with references to a state-backed campaign called "I am Chavez," and he once opened his shirt to show a T-shirt underneath bearing an image of his boss's eyes.

At the inauguration of one public transport project he strayed into an awkward metaphor: "Chavez is the cable car."

(Additional reporting by Girish Gupta, Mario Naranjo and Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Kieran Murray and Eric Beech)

View the original article here

Venezuela's Maduro: from bus driver to Chavez's successor

CARACAS (Reuters) - Former bus driver and union leader Nicolas Maduro followed a simple strategy when he filled in for cancer-stricken Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez over the past three months: copy his boss's policies, his style and even his fierce rhetoric.

Now that Chavez is dead, Maduro will almost certainly stick with the same approach as he tries to win a presidential election and inherit Chavez's self-styled socialist revolution.

Maduro rose to the job of vice president precisely because he was a firm Chavez loyalist and he has so far given no hints that he might make significant policy changes if he is elected.

Knowing he might not recover, Chavez named the burly, mustachioed Maduro as his heir apparent in early December before flying to Cuba for his fourth cancer operation in 18 months.

The move turned Maduro, who had served for six years as foreign minister but was named vice president only a few weeks earlier, into the OPEC nation's de facto leader.

Although unable to come anywhere near to matching Chavez's famous charisma, Maduro has copied his hectoring style, grand historical references and vitriolic attacks on "treacherous" opponents.

"Chavez has shown us a superior human state: socialism," Maduro, 50, said in adoring comments during one of dozens of appearances on state television.

"We are absolutely firm on the goals, plans and spirit of this program ... Our people want to continue consolidating a socially inclusive model that gives protection to all, economic stability and progress, and true democracy."

Like Chavez, Maduro has accused foes of plotting to assassinate him and blamed private businesses for causing Venezuela's economic problems with hoarding and what he denounces as "speculative attacks" on the bolivar currency.

Hours before Chavez's death, Maduro accused "imperialist" enemies of infecting Chavez with cancer - the kind of headline-grabbing allegations against powerful foes that Chavez often used to whip up supporters during his 14 years of tumultuous rule.

As foreign minister, Maduro had a fairly dull image as a loyalist who never diverted from Chavez's line, although some saw him as an affable potential moderate who could use his talents as a union negotiator turned globe-trotting diplomat to build bridges with critics at home and abroad.

At times he has softened his rhetoric - for example, saying that it was only a "small number" of opposition figures who were "conspiring against the fatherland" - but he has taken a tough line more often than not.

If Maduro wins the election, he is expected to broadly continue the radical policies of the Chavez era, including nationalizations, tight state control of the economy and financial support for allies such as communist-led Cuba.

There is plenty of speculation that he might at some point try to ease tensions with business groups and the U.S. government, but so far there is no firm evidence.

Still, his first priority is to win the election and that means marshalling support from across Chavez's coalition, which ranges from leftist ideologues to businessmen, and military officers to hardline armed groups called "colectivos." It would be much more difficult if he openly proposed a new direction.

TWO DECADES BESIDE CHAVEZ

Opposition critics have lampooned Maduro as a poor imitation of Chavez, saying he parrots his boss's words and ideas without the same charm or independent thought.

"The job is too big for Mr. Maduro. He keeps shouting to cover up his incompetence," mocked opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who lost to Chavez in the last election in October but won 44 percent support and will likely be Maduro's challenger.

One recent poll showed Maduro ahead of Capriles, in part because of Chavez's personal endorsement.

Within the ruling Socialist Party, Maduro faces pressure, from ideological hardliners as well as profiteers who enriched themselves under Chavez, to extend the state's grip over the economy and private enterprise.

Other than campaigning heavily on Chavez's blessing and his position as guarantor of revolutionary continuity, it is hard to see how Maduro's own policy plans might develop.

"Maduro remains an enigma," said Alberto Barrera Tyszka, who co-wrote a 2004 biography of Chavez called "Without Uniform."

"In these early days, he has tried to imitate Chavez in style, though without his grace and charisma."

In 1992, when Chavez was jailed for a failed coup that made him famous, Maduro took to the streets to demand his release and visited him in prison.

Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, led the legal team that helped get Chavez freed within two years, and she is also a former leader of the National Assembly. The two have long been seen as a power couple in the government.

One of Maduro's offices features a large portrait of the late Indian spiritual guru Sai Baba, whom he and Flores visited in 2005.

A rabble-rousing legislator who was on the front line of the successful effort to defeat a brief coup against Chavez in 2002, Maduro rose to head the National Assembly, swapping the blue jeans and plaid shirts of a union leader for sharp suits.

Even in his smarter attire, Maduro used to elbow through reporters to get to the appetizer table before presidential news conferences.

As foreign minister, Maduro traveled widely, denouncing U.S. foreign policy and cultivating allies in emerging markets such as Russia and China, which would become a key financier.

"He has always followed Chavez unconditionally but not because he's not smart enough to do otherwise," said Vladimir Villegas, Venezuela's former ambassador to Mexico.

ANALYTICAL APPROACH

Alberto Vivas, a school friend of Maduro's, played baseball with the future vice president when they were teenagers, and then they worked together on the Caracas metro system. "Nicolas is very analytical and particularly intelligent," Vivas said.

Jose Albornoz, who worked alongside him as a legislator, praised his common touch: "Nicolas is a person who can talk to anyone ... His work with unions taught him to communicate with his adversary. I think he could open a dialogue with (opposition leaders) to make sure his government is successful."

If he wins the election, Maduro will face a testing economic scenario after last month's devaluation of the bolivar currency, which followed heavy state spending ahead of Chavez's re-election last year.

Inflation is above 20 percent a year and oil production has stagnated even though Venezuela has the world's biggest reserves of crude.

The idea of a transition from Chavez to Maduro may have come from Cuba's Fidel Castro, Chavez's mentor who six years ago handed over power to his younger brother Raul after falling ill himself. The younger Castro has since begun a slow transition away from centrally planned communism.

More pragmatism from Maduro could help tackle problems like violent crime, inflation and unemployment that critics say went unchecked because of Chavez's focus on more ideological themes.

It is unclear what measures Maduro might be prepared to take if the economy took a turn for the worse.

While Chavez had a reputation for choosing top officials on the basis of loyalty and political views, people who have worked with Maduro say he looks for credentials and hard work.

"He's a real man of the people," said Ramon Torres, Ecuador's former ambassador to Venezuela.

Whatever his long-term plans, Maduro is sure to drop Chavez's name at every turn along the campaign trail, eulogizing him in gushing and quasi-messianic terms.

During the president's absence after his last surgery, Maduro peppered speeches with references to a state-backed campaign called "I am Chavez," and he once opened his shirt to show a T-shirt underneath bearing an image of his boss's eyes.

At the inauguration of one public transport project he strayed into an awkward metaphor: "Chavez is the cable car."

(Additional reporting by Girish Gupta, Mario Naranjo and Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Kieran Murray and Eric Beech)

View the original article here

Venezuelans to vote in 30 days, Maduro assumes power for now

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelans will vote for a new president in 30 days and Vice President Nicolas Maduro will temporarily assume power following the death on Tuesday of Hugo Chavez, the foreign minister said.

"The vice president assumes power as the president, and elections will be held in the next 30 days," Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said in televised comments.

(Reporting by Andrew Cawthorne; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Eric Walsh)

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Maduro could run Venezuela if Chavez resigned: Correa

QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said on Thursday that Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is recovering from cancer surgery, but if he had to step down Vice President Nicolas Maduro would be "extremely capable" of running the OPEC nation.

Correa, who won a sweeping re-election victory on Sunday, told Reuters he thinks Maduro is the right person to take over in Venezuela if the socialist leader needs to step down.

"Regardless of who may take charge, my main concern is that Chavez recovers ... but in case he cannot be in charge, Vice President Maduro is extremely capable," Correa told Reuters in an interview.

Chavez made a surprise return home from Cuba on Monday after undergoing his fourth cancer operation in 18 months on December 11. He has never said exactly what type of cancer he has, only that it was diagnosed in his pelvic area in mid-2011.

The 58-year-old leader has named Maduro, a former bus driver and union activist, as his preferred successor if he had to step down and a new presidential election were held.

Correa said he believed any future transition of power in Caracas would be democratic if Chavez had to step down.

"All the processes since Chavez has been in power, as far as I know, have been extremely democratic. Those who lose might not like it, that's another issue ... But Venezuela has a vibrant democracy," he said.

Correa, a close friend and ally of Chavez, said he spoke with Maduro on Wednesday and plans to visit Venezuela soon.

Bolivian President Evo Morales said on Wednesday he had been unable to see Chavez when he visited Caracas this week because the Venezuelan leader was receiving treatment.

(Editing by Daniel Wallis and Eric Walsh)

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