VENEZUELA: Opposition Candidate Slams Homophobia As "Absolute Fascism"

As the contest to succeed late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez heats up, leading opposition candidate and Miranda state Gov. Henrique Capriles (left) is firing back at interim president Nicolas Maduro, who has has publicly hinted that Capriles is gay.  Andres Duque has a translation of Capriles' statement at Blabbeando:

I'd like to send a respectful and considerate message in rejection to the homophobic remarks made by Nicolás [Maduro] today. It's not the first time. I believe in a society without exclusion and that's the way I express it to the country. A society where no one feels excluded based on the way they think, their race, their creed, their sexual orientation. People should go out and reject it. That's fascism. Absolute fascism. From the extreme right. If that's how you want to attack me, let it be. But from here on I will always demand respect for all Venezuelans. Because the society that we want to build in Venezuela is a society without exclusion. You cannot talk of inclusion if there is exclusion. There should be overwhelming rejection of something like that.

The election is April 14th. When Chavez was reelected last year, he won with 8.1M votes and Capriles finished with 6.6M. A breakdown of the candidates and parties can be found here.