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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Venezuelan candidates trade barbs

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles said on Sunday he will challenge the late Hugo Chavez's preferred successor for the presidency next month, setting the stage for a bitter campaign.

Capriles, a 40-year-old state governor, will face election favorite and acting President Nicolas Maduro. The pair have until Monday to register their candidacies for the April 14 vote.

The election will decide whether Chavez's self-styled socialist and nationalist revolution will live on in the country with the world's largest proven oil reserves.

"I am going to fight," Capriles said at a news conference. "Nicolas, I am not going to give you a free pass. You will have to beat me with votes."

Former vice president Maduro, 50, a hulking one-time bus driver and union leader turned politician who echoes Chavez's anti-imperialist rhetoric, is expected to win the election comfortably, according to two recent polls.

Maduro pushed for a snap election to cash in on a wave of empathy triggered by Chavez's death last Tuesday at age 58 after a two-year battle with cancer. He was sworn in as acting president on Friday to the fury of Capriles.

"You have used the body of the president for political campaigning," Capriles said of Maduro.

Capriles, the centrist Miranda state governor who often wears a baseball cap and tennis shoes, lost to Chavez in October. But he won 44 percent of the vote - the strongest showing by the opposition against Chavez.

Capriles has accused the government and Supreme Court of fraud for letting Maduro campaign without stepping down.

Although the ruling Socialist Party is favored to win, opposition supporters are trying to raise their spirits.

"There's no reason to think that the opposition is condemned to defeat," Teodoro Petkoff, an anti-government newspaper editor, said on his Sunday talk show.

Maduro has vowed to carry on where Chavez left off and ratify his policy platform. He acknowledged he has big shoes to fill.

"I am not Chavez - speaking strictly in terms of the intelligence, charisma, historical force, leadership capacity and spiritual grandeur of our comandante," he told a crowd on Saturday.

Chavez was immensely popular among Venezuela's poor for funneling vast oil wealth into social programs and handouts.

The heavy government spending and currency devaluations have contributed to annual inflation of more than 20 percent, hurting consumers.

"Maduro's success will depend on if he can fix the economy and its distortions," said a former high-level official in the Chavez government who declined to be named. "If he does that, he could emerge as a strong leader instead of one who is an heir."

DIFFICULT RACE

Maduro's first official meeting on Saturday was with officials from China, who Chavez courted to provide an alternative to investment that traditionally came from the United States.

He has adopted his mentor's touch for the theatrical, accusing imperialists, often a Chavez euphemism for the United States, of killing the charismatic but divisive leader by infecting him with cancer.

Emotional tributes were paid at a religious service at the military academy housing Chavez's casket on Sunday, where people continued to gather.

Chavez scared investors with nationalizations and railed against the wealthy. In heavily polarized Venezuela some well-to-do citizens toasted his death with champagne.

Venezuela's opposition coalition backed Capriles as its candidate on Saturday. If elected, Capriles says he would copy Brazil's "modern left" model of economic and social policies.

Given the state resources at Maduro's disposal and the limited time for campaigning, Capriles faces an uphill battle.

"If the opposition runs, they'll lose. If they don't run, they lose even more!" tweeted Andres Izarra, who served as information minister under Chavez.

The opposition rank-and-file is heavily demoralized after losing last year's presidential race and getting hammered in gubernatorial elections in December, stoking internal party divisions.

"There's no doubt that it's an uphill race for Capriles," local political analyst Luis Vicente Leon said. "The trouble is that given the race is so close to Chavez's death, emotions get inflamed and the candidate probably continues to be Chavez rather than Maduro."

"The big challenge for Capriles is not to campaign against Chavez but to try to take the fight to Maduro ... trying to show the huge gap (with Chavez) and relate it to the daily problems Venezuelans face."

(With reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez, Simon Gardner, Terry Wade, Pablo Garibian, Deisy Buitrago, Mario Naranjo and Enrique Andres Pretel; Editing by Stacey Joyce)

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