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Venezuela opposition picks unity candidate for presidential vote
Reuters/Jorge Silva
Venezuelan presidential candidate and Zulia's state governor Manuel Rosales speaks in Caracas August 9, 2006.
By Victor Flores
AFP
CARACAS
Petroleumworld.com 08 10 06Venezuela's opposition joined forces Wednesday behind a unity candidate to face President Hugo Chavez, who has loomed large over Latin American politics, in the December 3 presidential vote.
The notoriously fractious opposition selected Manuel Rosales, 52, a popular social democratic governor of western Zulia state, to stand against Chavez, a leftist populist who has aligned himself politically with communist-ruled Cuba.
"Today the way is opening up, we are starting out on a route of hope, and of national reconstruction," Rosales said.
He said that unlike Chavez, criticised in some circles for presiding over oil wealth as poverty has grown, his social policy would "start the real distribution of our oil wealth" with a minimum unemployment benefit payment for every unemployed worker.
"Just as in the past," Rosales said, "we have a very rich government, and a very poor people." As oil prices have soared beyond 60 dollars a barrel, Venezuela's poor have grown to number 70-72 percent of the population, he said.
Rosales said he would work to govern "without abuses, without creating confrontations between Venezuelans," in allusion to the country's highly polarized national scene.
Other top opposition leaders who had declared their candidacies agreed to step down so that anti-Chavez forces could stand a better chance.
The move avoids a primary vote that had been set for the weekend.
"Today is a day to put aside personal ambitions and think of the unity of Venezuela," said candidate Julio Borges, 36, member of a center-right group, announcing his decision to step down from the race.
The opposition had earlier debated boycotting the December election because of Chavez's dominant role in the country's politics.
But Chavez in May threatened to call a national referendum on remaining in office until 2031 if the opposition failed to field a challenger.
Chavez, who spent two years in jail for leading a failed military coup in 1992, was first elected in 1998. He was re-elected by a landslide in July 2000 for a six-year term, and survived both an April 2002 coup and a 2004 recall vote.
A close ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro, Chavez is a virulent critic of the US government. Chavez has recently stepped up diplomatic and economic efforts with countries including Iran, much to US dismay.
Venezuela's foreign policy, Rosales said, "should not be based on ideology or the system of government of a particular country, but rather focus on what our interests are ... without putting ideology before all else."
And on the military front, "we will not have fantasy asymmetrical wars," Rosales said, in a harsh allusion to Chavez's policy of confrontation with the United States and military buildup based on such a theoretical clash.
"The only war is going to be a war on crime, drugs and guerrillas in Venezuela. We don't want warplanes. We are going to trade them in for hospitals and schools," he said.
The government says that Venezuelans are in charge, he said. "But it's a lie. Common criminals are the ones who are in charge ... rebels and paramilitaries."
Rosales, who has been a career politician for the past 27 years, is one of only two opposition governors serving in Venezuela's 24 states.
With 3.2 million residents, Zulia is Venezuela's most populous state. It is also rich in agricultural products and oil.
AFP 09 2248 GMT 08 06
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