Venezuelan Elections: a Choice and Not an Echo

On October 7th, Venezuelan voters will decide whether to support incumbent President Hugo Chavez or opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski.The voters will choose between two polar opposite programs and social systems: 

Chavez calls for the expansion of public ownership of the means of production and consumption, an increase in social spending for welfare programs, greater popular participation in local decision-making, an independent foreign policy based on greater Latin American integration, increases in progressive taxation, the defense of free public health and educational programs and the defense of public ownership of oil production. In contrast Capriles Radonski represents the parties and elite who support the privatization of public enterprises, oppose the existing public health and educational and social welfare programs and favor neo-liberal policies designed to subsidize and expand the role and control of foreign and local private capital.

While Capriles Radonski claims to be in favor of what he dubs “the Brazilian model” of “free markets and social welfare”, his political and social backers, in the past and present, are strong advocates of free trade agreements with the US, restrictions on social spending and regressive taxation. 

Unlike the US, the Venezuelan voters have a choice and not an echo: two candidates representing distinct social classes, with divergent socio-political visions and international alignments .... http://www.veteransnewsnow.com

“Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, a conservative businessman with a modernizing approach, has presented himself as a latter-day progressive protector of the working class. Capriles’s biggest challenge will be attempting to win over the many Venezuelans who are dependent on government jobs and subsidized social programs provided by the Chávez administration.” — Gervasio Sapriza