If so, the empire seems mightily confused about its tactics. Some of its alleged agents are pushing for abstention in December, arguing that the election is rigged and participation would only legitimize a dictatorship. But earlier this month, most of the opposition miraculously united behind the Rosales candidacy. A few minor candidates, some of them unknown to all but their immediate families, still remain. And there is even a comedian in the race—Benjamín Rausseo, better-known as the Count of Guácharo—who combines admiration for the United States and free-market economics with raunchy jokes that would make a truck-driver blush.
Can the 53-year-old Rosales steer a way through this confusing landscape and still give Chávez a run for his money in December? It won’t be easy. The president, somewhat paradoxically, retains the support of over half the electorate, despite the fact that his government’s performance on key issues like crime, unemployment and corruption, is seen as hopelessly inadequate. But he has unchecked control over export revenue from over 2 million barrels a day in oil exports. Not to mention a stranglehold on every branch of government, as well as the armed forces.
The two-term Zulia governor has a firm power-base in his home state, where he has twice beaten back challenges from Chavista rivals and has formed his own party, called A New Time. A poor orator, he cannot hope to compare with the electrifying Chávez. But as a former stalwart of Democratic Action—the social democratic party that dominated Venezuela for nearly four decades—he may be the man to start rebuilding party politics in a country where non-politicians have held sway, with disastrous results, for the past decade.
