Chávez reelection at risk as Venezuela's oil heartland moves on

[Zorro]

Here in the oil-rich eastern region of Venezuela, propaganda for President Hugo Chávez dominates the landscape, from spotless billboards by the airport to dusty banners over trash-strewn lots. A hillside water tank carries the name of Chávez’s PSUV party.

Though President Chávez has spent years focusing on the region’s strategic importance, cultivating support for his party and its policies of “21st century socialism,” his campaign has hit resistance here. And it has become one of the places where opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski stands to pick up votes when the country goes to the polls on Sunday.

Over the course of his nearly 14 years as President, Chávez has made it clear he wants supporters of his socialist revolution to control access to the region’s quarter trillion barrels of oil reserves. But with a record of oil spills, a rising accident rate in refineries, and social problems like the continent's highest murder rates and weekly blackouts, Chávez’s time in office may be working against him, weighing on his public support here, and across much of the country.

"It's very tight, and both have very similar chances of winning," says Iñaki Sagarzazu, a Venezuelan teaching at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. "It will come down to who mobilizes the most."

More at: http://news.yahoo.com/ch-vez-reelection-risk-venezuelas-oil-heartland-moves-130004488.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. Wishful thinking by Corporate 'News.' Chavez just won, by a 10% margin. nt

[sabrina 1]

2. Lol, the Corporate Media have been predicting a loss for Chavez hoping I suppose to

depress support for him. And as usual, they got it so wrong. I've been reading their nonsense re Venezuela since 2004 which appears to be when an all out effort to destroy Chavez went into effect here.

They really ought to give it up as the rest of the world no longer trusts anything that comes from our media, nor do most of us for that matter.

What's shameful is that this country's ruling class is so supportive of the Far Right and always has been.

If Chavez were a Right Wing Dictator, he would be entertained by Congress and totally backed both financially and militarily. They just can't accept that their old cold war policies have been finally been totally rejected.

Once again, the Corporate Media gets it spectacularly wrong. And to think how much they spend on anti-Chavez propaganda but they just can't influence the people who know, and apparently respect him, the most, the people of Venezuela.