Page 11 - Aruba Today

WORLD NEWS A11
Friday 27 November 2015

Venezuela opposition challenging on Chavez family turf

A campaign worker hands out a leaflet promoting the has ebbed as food lines chicken for a month. Ev- has vowed to prevent that
opposition coalition during a campaign rally in Barinas, worsen, crime spirals and erything is sacrifice now.” “by any means.” Party
Venezuela. Although the Chavez family has ruled the state complaints mount of inef- He and other neighbors leaders in Barinas have
since the late 1990s, its grip is slipping. And that augurs the ficiency, corruption and grumbled on the side- plastered the streets with
previously unthinkable: A nationwide turn against the well- cronyism in local govern- lines as Asdrubal zipped ads, and election officials
entrenched party Hugo Chavez founded. ment. through a handful of pre- redrew districts this year
A home-turf defeat in Dec. screened homes Monday to take a seat from an
(AP Photo/Fernando Llano) 6 congressional elections in the boys’ old neighbor- opposition-leaning part of
would badly wound the hood in Barinas, as both the state and add it to a
HANNAH DREIER ranching state where the governing socialists, who the state and its capi- government stronghold.
late leader and his five tightly control state insti- tal are named. Hugo’s The socialists and opposi-
Associated Press brothers were raised. tutions after 16 years in younger brother Argenis, tion each have a lock on
The family’s grip on Bari- power. If the United Social- a candidate for another of one of Barinas’ six congres-
BARINAS, Venezuela nas, which it has governed ist Party of Venezuela can the state’s six congressio- sional seats; the opposition
since the late 1990s, ap- lose here, it can lose any- nal seats, had canceled hopes to win the other
(AP) — Asdrubal Chavez pears to be slipping amid where. And indeed, polls at the last minute. four.
what polls indicate is a predict it will suffer its first- The socialists currently hold During the early days of
nationwide turn against ever national election loss. 60 percent of Venezuela’s Chavez’s presidency, vo-
the well-entrenched party “The Chavez I knew would 167 congressional seats. cal opponents in Barinas
Hugo Chavez founded. never have accepted this Independent polls show weathered withering in-
Many on the plains con- reality,” said Gaspare Bar- the opposition on track sults, attacks with rocks
tinue to adore the late raco, 59, a retired auto to win back control, and and threats from pro-gov-
president, who grew up in body painter who grew up within striking distance of a ernment gangs who fired
a dirt-floor shack here. But playing stickball with Hugo two-thirds majority, which guns into the air as warn-
in the 32 months since his and his brothers. “I can’t would allow them to re- ings.
death, support for his new- get my diabetes pills. I write key laws.
ly rich brothers and cousins haven’t been able to buy President Nicolas Maduro Continued on Page 27

is a walking tribute to his

still-revered cousin as he

stumps for congress. Hugo

Chavez’s eyes peer out

from above the bill of his

red baseball cap. The late

president’s signature is em-

blazoned on his red shirt.

But conjuring the image of

the founder of Venezue-

la’s socialist revolution may

no longer be enough for a

person named Chavez to

win elected office in this

Chinese company postpones
big canal project in Nicaragua

MANAGUA, Nicaragua 2016.”
(AP) — A Chinese com- The company gave no
pany said Wednesday it is reason for the delay, but
delaying the start of con- said that “the canal’s de-
struction on a $50 billion sign is currently being fine-
inter-ocean canal across tuned.”
Nicaragua until late 2016. Nicaraguan authorities
China’s HKND Co. got have already approved
approval for environmen- the proposed 172-mile
tal studies of the canal (278-kilometer) route for
earlier this month. But on the canal.
Wednesday, a company Crews broke ground on
statement said that “the access roads for the proj-
construction of locks and ect last December, but
the big excavations will have yet to start digging
start toward the end of the waterway itself.q