Caracas: Hugo Chavez's hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro, has officially won Venezuela's presidential election by a stunningly narrow margin that highlights rising discontent over problems ranging from crime to power blackouts. His rival demanded a recount, portending more headaches for a country shaken by the death of its dominating leader.
One key Chavista leader expressed dismay over the outcome of Sunday's election, which was supposed to cement the self-styled "Bolivarian Revolution" of their beloved president as Venezuela's destiny. National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, who many consider Maduro's main rival within their movement, tweeted: "The results oblige us to make a profound self-criticism."
Maduro's victory followed an often ugly, mudslinging campaign in which the winner promised to carry on Chavez's legacy, while challenger Henrique Capriles' main message was that Chavez put this country with the world's largest oil reserves on the road to ruin. Despite the ill feelings, both men sent their supporters home and urged them to refrain from violence.
Capriles insisted on a recount and Maduro said he was open to one, though it was not immediately clear if election officials might permit it. "We are not going to recognize a result until each vote of Venezuelans is counted," Capriles said. "This struggle has not ended."...
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08:20 PM, Apr 15, 2013
Caracas: Ruling party candidate Nicolas Maduro narrowly won Venezuela's presidential election on Sunday, the electoral authority said, allowing him to continue the socialist policies of the late president Hugo Chavez. The National Electoral Council said Maduro won 50.7 per cent of the votes, compared to 49.1 per cent for his young rival, Miranda state Governor Henrique Capriles. It said more than 99 per cent of the votes had been counted...
10:29 AM, Apr 15, 2013
Caracas: Late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's socialist revolution would be put to test on Sunday when the country goes to polls to elect a new president. Chavez's chosen successor will compete against a younger rival who promises change in the nation that Chavez polarized. Most opinion polls give his protege, acting President Nicolas Maduro, a strong lead over opposition challenger Henrique Capriles thanks to Chavez's endorsement and the surge of...
09:28 AM, Apr 14, 2013
The Obama administration on Monday rejected accusations of any US involvement in a plot to assassinate a Venezuelan opposition leader. "Let me say it here extremely clearly, looking right at you, the United States categorically rejects allegations of any US government involvement in any plot to destabilise the Venezuelan government or to harm anyone in Venezuela," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said at a regular press briefing. ...
02:57 AM, Mar 19, 2013
Venezuela's acting president urged US leader Barack Obama to stop what he called a plot by the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency to kill his opposition rival and trigger a coup before an April 14, 2013, election. ...
12:10 AM, Mar 18, 2013
Senior Iranian clerics have criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for consoling Hugo Chavez's mother with a hug. ...
04:43 PM, Mar 12, 2013
Bolivian President Evo Morales has said he is "almost certain" that "the empire" had poisoned the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. Chavez, who led Venezuela for 14 years, died at age 58 after a two-year-long fight against cancer. ...
02:42 PM, Mar 10, 2013
Venezuelans will vote April 14, 2013, to choose a successor to Hugo Chavez, the elections commission announced on Saturday as increasingly strident political rhetoric begins to roil this polarized country. ...
06:15 AM, Mar 10, 2013
World leaders, athletes and left-wing celebrities gathered at a music-filled state funeral honouring Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday, with multitudes waiting outside, the start of a day that will end with the swearing in of his hand-picked successor as interim president. ...
07:36 AM, Mar 09, 2013
Venezuela's Supreme Court says Vice President Nicolas Maduro became acting president the moment Hugo Chavez died, and can run for president. The decision comes just hours before Maduro is to be sworn in as acting president before the National Assembly and it was issued during the state funeral for Chavez. National Assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello had earlier announced the planned swearing-in, which the opposition says it is boycotting. ...
06:55 AM, Mar 09, 2013
Hello and Welcome to Worldview with me Suhasini Haidar- tonight-- the death of one of the world's large figures. The funeral for Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez is attended by the world. CNN's Shasta Darlington in Caracas, Venezuela Also Minister Mr. Shashi Tharoor- He was former UN undersecretary general and he met with Mr. Chavez...he's back on the show to talk about his legacy We're also looking at troubling figures from ...
07:14 PM, Mar 08, 2013
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez will be embalmed and put on display "for eternity" at a military museum after a state funeral and an extended period of lying in state, acting President Nicolas Maduro said on Thursday. Huge crowds are still waiting to pay their respects to Chavez after his death this week, and Maduro said the move - reminiscent of the treatment of Communist leaders Lenin, Stalin and Mao after their...
12:40 PM, Mar 08, 2013
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko are travelling to Caracas to attend the funeral of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, state television reported. ...
02:20 AM, Mar 08, 2013
Chavez, who died on Wednesday, led Venezuela for 14 years and had easily won a new six-year term in an election in October, defeating Capriles. His folksy charisma, anti-US diatribes and oil-financed projects to improve life for residents of long-neglected slums created an unusually powerful bond with many poor Venezuelans. ...
11:57 PM, Mar 07, 2013
Venezuela has some of the biggest oil and natural gas reserves in the world and it is one of the top energy suppliers internationally. But oil production has plummeted under Hugo Chavez's 14-year rule. ...
07:29 PM, Mar 07, 2013
President Hugo Chavez died of a massive heart attack after great suffering and inaudibly mouthed his desire to live, the head of Venezuela's presidential guard said late Wednesday. "He couldn't speak but he said it with his lips ... 'I don't want to die. Please don't let me die,' because he loved his country, he sacrificed himself for his country," Gen Jose Ornella told reporters. ...
01:00 PM, Mar 07, 2013
The coffin of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez was taken to a military academy where he will lie in state for three days, as throngs of weeping supporters swarmed Caracas streets to bid farewell. ...
10:44 AM, Mar 07, 2013
Weeping and shouting, a sea of Hugo Chavez's supporters paraded his coffin through the streets of Caracas on Wednesday in an emotional outpouring that could help his deputy win an election and keep his self-styled socialist revolution alive. ...
06:00 AM, Mar 07, 2013
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hits out at the BJP calling its leadership abusive and arrogant. ...
11:57 PM, Mar 06, 2013
