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Opposition
presidential candidate and Miranda state Governor Henrique
Capriles speaks to
his supporters after knowing the results of the election
in Caracas February
12, 2012. (Credit: Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
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(Reuters) -
Venezuela's opposition primary winner Henrique Capriles oozed confidence on
Monday that he can unseat President Hugo Chavez and end 13 years of socialism
that foes say has left the OPEC nation in crisis.
Capriles'
presidential campaign had a roaring start with an easy win in the Democratic
Unity coalition's Sunday vote where high participation of nearly 3 million
showed the opposition can mobilize supporters ahead of the October 7 presidential
vote.
The
39-year-old center-left state governor's bid was further bolstered by a show of
unity among the losing candidates from the opposition, which for years suffered
from internal disputes that ultimately benefited Chavez.
"Today
the country awakes to a new political reality. The future has won,"
Capriles told local TV, beaming in a dawn interview a few hours after his
victory party wound up.
"It's
clear this government's model has failed ... We have a country in crisis."
Yet with
Chavez riding high in polls, still popular among the poor and spending
massively on welfare projects, Capriles will need to go beyond the vague
promises and feel-good factor of his primary campaign if he is to unseat the
president.
His strong
showing, winning 62 percent of the primary vote, will likely please investors,
who react well to any news suggesting a change from Chavez's state-centered
economic model.
"This
result is still market positive as the opposition showed mobilization capacity
and empowered the candidate," wrote Goldman Sachs analyst Alberto Ramos.
Venezuelan
bonds, among the most highly traded emerging market securities, rose following
Chavez's cancer diagnosis last year but slipped again as the former soldier
staged what appeared to be quick recovery.
NEW FACE
Part of a
new guard of young opposition leaders, Capriles has cast himself as a fresh
face in a country dominated by Chavez's militant leftism and constant
confrontation.
The
grandson of Polish fugitives from Nazi persecution, Capriles says he admires
Brazil's "modern left" economic model, which has helped pull tens of
millions out of poverty through a mix of state spending and respect for private
enterprise.
"The
government loves talking about revolution. Why don't we take off the 'r' and
talk about evolution?" he said on Monday, in one of many catch-phrases
that served him well during the opposition primary campaign.
"I am
not a Messiah, I'm a public servant," he added, seeking to make a contrast
with Chavez's all-dominant persona.
Capriles
has promised to address the day-to-day concerns of Venezuelans such as high
crime, unemployment and constantly rising prices, and spend less time on
ideological crusades.
"This
is what we were hoping for, a man like Capriles who has the power and the
responsibility to govern this country, because Venezuela needs to change,"
said Leila Sutil, 58, a community organizer.
Capriles
says he will maintain the best of Chavez's welfare policies, while only
gradually dismantling controversial measures that include price and currency
controls plus nationalizations of everything from farms to oil service
companies.
He has
indicated he will steer Venezuela's international alliances away from Chavez's
faraway, ideologically motivated friendships with Iran, Belarus, Syria and
other anti-U.S. governments.
It will be
a hard sell, however, to convince voters in Venezuela's rural backwaters and
urban slums won over by Chavez's potent combination of fierce nationalism,
abundant charisma and huge welfare programs.
State media
immediately began describing Capriles as "the candidate of the right
wing."
Heavy on
generalizations and in a hoarse voice, Capriles' victory speech showed his
public style is still far behind the smoothly loquacious Chavez, who recently
spoke for a record-breaking 9 1/2-hours in a speech to Congress.
"The
guy may have won the primaries, but he's so lacking in charisma, it's not going
to be easy for him ..." sniped deputy foreign minister Temir Porras via
Twitter.
Opposition-leaning
newspapers, however, were euphoric, enjoying a rare sense of unity and triumph.
"Now
let's go to October the 7th," blazed TalCual's front page, its editor
Teodoro Petkoff adding: "A large part of the nation is tired of Chavez. They're
screaming it in his face."
(Additional
reporting by Deisy Buitrago, Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Vicki Allen)
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