Venezuelan candidates trade barbs

OPPOSITION'S UPHILL STRUGGLE

Though there are hopes for a post-Chavez rapprochement between ideological foes Venezuela and the United States, a diplomatic spat worsened on Monday when Washington expelled two Venezuelan diplomats in a tit-for-tat retaliation.

Two US military attaches were ordered out last week, on the day of Chavez's death, for allegedly conspiring with locals against the government.

Venezuela's only opposition TV channel, Globovision, said on Monday it had accepted a buyout offer because of financial troubles and frequent tangles with the government.

A local businessman is buying the channel and it was not immediately clear if its editorial line would change. The sale will close after the election.

Capriles, a 40-year-old centrist governor who describes himself as a "progressive" and an admirer of Brazil's political model, ran in the last presidential election in October, taking 44 percent of the votes, but was unable to prevent Chavez's re-election.

While attacking Maduro's handling of the crisis over Chavez's cancer, Capriles will try to turn the focus of the month-long election campaign to the many day-to-day problems afflicting Venezuelans, from electricity cuts to crime and an inflation rate that is among the world's highest.

Maduro, 50, who echoes Chavez's anti-imperialist rhetoric, is sure to make his former boss the centerpiece of his campaign while casting himself as the only heir.

On Monday, though, he did promise a new anti-crime drive, and to deepen Chavez's social programs, known as "missions", in the slums. He also sought to blame sky high crime levels, which worsened dramatically during Chavez's years in power, on Venezuela's wealthy, saying they had ignored festering social problems and turned their back on the poor.

Two opinion polls before Chavez's death gave Maduro a lead of more than 10 percentage points.

"This is going to be a really tough campaign for us, we know," said an aide at Capriles' office in Caracas.

"It's hard to get everyone enthused and pumped again. We've only got a month, and we're fighting Chavez's ghost, not Maduro. But believe me, we'll give it our best."