VENEZUELA: Hand-Picked Successor To Hugo Chavez Wins Presidency In Squeaker

The gay-baiting hand-picked successor to Hugo Chavez has won the Venezuelan presidency by the narrowest of margins.

Winner Nicolas Maduro campaigned on a promise to carry on Mr Chavez's self-styled socialist revolution, and defeated a two-time challenger who claimed the late president's regime has put Venezuela on the road to ruin. Officials say Mr Maduro defeated Henrique Capriles by just 300,000 votes. The margin was 50.8% to 49.1%. "These are the irreversible results that the people have decided," National Electoral Council president Tibisay Lucena told a news conference.

During the campaign Maduro repeatedly implied that Capriles is gay, and charges of homophobia were exchanged by both sides.

RELATED: Anti-Chavez US-based wingnut sites are already claiming that Maduro stole the election. Foreign observers from the Center for Economic and Policy Research say they witnessed no improprieties.

What we saw when we were invited in was a model of transparency, with many checks and balances to assure integrity. People must show identification, their serial number is then entered into a digitial device and their photo comes up, then they give a thumb print to verify their identity again. They then proceed to vote electronically, receiving a paper receipt which they check and deposit in a box for later auditing. They then sign out, give a thumb print next to their signature, and dip their pinky finger in a vial of indelible ink to assure that they can't vote again. All of this is facilitated by randomly chosen registered voters and witnessed by representatives of the political parties. There is an audit of 55% of the voting tables to check the paper receipts against the electronic returns. Jimmy Carter called it the best voting system in the world and we could see why.

UPDATE: Capriles is demanding a recount.

More Homophobia In Venezuela

Venezuelan interim President Nicolas Maduro continues to imply that opposition leader Henrique Capriles is gay.  Yesterday the crowd cheered when Maduro said that Capriles is "in love with me."

(Via Blabbeando)

More Gay Sniping In Venezuela

"If I were gay I'd take ownership of it with pride and shout it to the four winds and I would have no problem loving whoever I had to love with my heart. Because the worst homophobe is one who is gay and discriminates against his own. It's similar to a foreman in a slave-owner's farm. A black traitor who whips an African man's back. That's the worst homophobe: He who denies his identity and discriminates against his equals. We introduced a constitutional amendment to acknowledge their existence and the supreme respect the nation has towards our sexually diverse brothers and sisters - and our opponents and the right called for a vote against that amendment." - Interim Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, firing back at homophobia charges by opposition candidate Henrique Capriles by again hinting that Capriles is gay. At the link, Andres Duque points out that Capriles did not oppose the above-cited amendment.  The election is April 14th.

RELATED: Maduro also claims that Hugo Chavez is now "face-to-face with Christ" and therefore influenced the selection of a South American pope.

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.