Venezuela's Capriles goes on offensive after graft accusations

[joshcryer]

Venezuela's Capriles goes on offensive after graft accusations
Venezuela's opposition challenger Henrique Capriles sought to deflect attention from a corruption row by throwing the accusation back at President Hugo Chavez on Friday in an escalating political brawl ahead of the Oct. 7 vote.

...

Capriles immediately fired the aide, Juan Carlos Caldera, and tried to turn the incident in his favor by saying that he - unlike Chavez - would not tolerate any whiff of misconduct within his team.

"If this government and its candidate took on corruption, they'd have no ministers left," Capriles told a rally.

Transparency International ranks Venezuela as the second-most corrupt nation in the Americas, after Haiti.

This is why Capriles is going to win. Calling it now. Expecting to me mocked if I am wrong.

[pa28]

1. Thanks for the update. I'd lost track of this particular issue.

Earlier in the year I'd heard from a variety of big media sources that Chavez had only weeks to live due to an aggressive and without a doubt completely terminal cancer. The kind that won't just kill you, it will kill you dead and then come back for seconds.

I looked into it and apparently somebody forgot to tell him we was supposed to have shuffled off the mortal coil last month sometime.

He's out there campaigning and he looks pretty good too!

[joshcryer]

2. This is about Capriles, the opposition candidate.

Apparently one of his campaign people was caught on video taking graft money. Capriles resoundingly denounced him and fired him.

The Dan Rather story about Chavez having a few months to live didn't pan out of course.

Chavez is still putting up a major fight against Capriles though Capriles visits one city every day or so and Chavez hasn't been able to campaign on the ground as well. Chavez has covered the airways with cadenas though.