Stay Connected
Atlanta Black Star/Editor's Picks
Editor's PicksNewsVideoWorld

Hugo Chavez’s Legacy Still Bears Influence on Venezuela’s Voters

Posted byBy ABS Contributor | Published on: CommentsComments (0)


Venezuela’s presidential contenders have held huge rallies as their campaigns draw to a close ahead of Sunday’s election.

For the first time in 14 years he is absent, but Hugo Chavez’s name is on everyone’s lips.

The late leader’s choice to succeed him, acting President Nicolas Maduro, says he is the sole guarantor of the socialist revolution.

“Do you have any doubts on whether we are going to win?” he asked thousands of red-shirted supporters in Caracas.

“No!” they replied in unison.

“Are you sure we are going to win?”

“Yes!” they roared.

“Me too. I’m sure, and I’m ready to be your president for the next six years,” said Maduro.

Ten points behind in the polls but gaining, opposition candidate Henrique Capriles says he wants more free-market economics without dismantling the Chavez social programs.

At a rally in the north, he focused on the nation’s soaring crime rate. “We’ve been submitted these past years to terrible violence,” he said. “I ask you, for the love of God, vote on Sunday to defeat violence,” he said.

The rhetoric in the campaign has been heated and personal. Maduro has made derogatory insinuations about his rival’s sexual orientation. Capriles has dubbed Maduro a “bull-chicken”.

Source: Euro News Channel

Democracy needs journalism it can trust.

This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.

For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed independent and reader-funded. We have no corporate owner and no shareholders telling us what to cover or how to cover it. That independence is also our biggest vulnerability: nothing protects it except readers choosing to fund it directly.

Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way

Related Stories

Back to top