MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chavez' home state and family becoming election liabilities

Chavez call his family to give a hand

With less than a week left for next Sunday's municipal and governor elections Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez arrived in his homeland to boost the campaign of his family who are candidates for the main posts of the province of Barinas and the city of Sabanera.

Barinas province has become a feud of Hugo Chavez family: his father is the current governor and one of his brothers hopefully will take over from him; another brother is fighting re-election as mayor of the city of Sabanera, and holding on to the feud has become a symbolic icon for the Venezuelan leader's political standing. Thousands of followers from the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, PSUV turned out to cheer Chavez, an overwhelming majority employed by government at different levels. For President Chavez and his political project of a Socialist constitution (with indefinite re-election and limited private property) rejected in a December 2006 referendum, has become crucial almost an obsession and he must win in Barinas by an undisputed margin. "Barinas has been called to become an example for the Socialist revolution" said Chavez addressing the crowd at the political rally, "but we can't loose a single vote". And this because although his father has been governor for the last ten years, the ruling party has divided and the current mayor of Barinas City until recently a most loyal member of President Chavez club has decided to run as an independent for the seat of governor. Julio Cesar Reyes has mounted his campaign on the growing discontent with the corruption allegations surrounding the Chavez family and their concentration of power, which rings a bell among the electorate. President Chavez describes Reyes as a "traitor", "infiltrated" and has re-baptized him as Judas Caesar. But President Chavez is well aware what is at stake: he has visited Barinas three times in the last two months of campaigning that ends next Friday. "The opposition, old and new, are saying that Chavez will loose next November 23, that they will be winning Barinas, a direct blow to my liver", said Chavez at the rally. "And if they win Barinas, it will be a blow to my liver, they'd be pounding me at my nest; that is why we have to clear the place of "rats" and end with the political corruption of these rats". The fact is that the five brothers of the president have done well. The youngest, Adelis, is a vice president of Banco Sofitasa, which does business with the state. Argenis has held the important post of secretary of state in Barinas under his father. Anibal is mayor of the president's hometown of Sabaneta, and up for re-election Sunday.Adan, a year older than Hugo, is the eldest, and has been the president's aide, education minister and ambassador to Cuba. A bespectacled former physics professor, he has his brother's beefy build and features but lacks his charisma and fiery speaking manner. In 1998, their father became governor and Hugo Chavez was elected president. The latest reliable public opinion polls indicate that Chavez could loose to the opposition between four and eight governorships.