Election Campaigning Officially Begins in Venezuela, Micro-Missions Announced

Merida, April 2^nd 2013 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Official campaigning for the 14 April presidential elections began today at 6am. Candidate for the Bolivarian revolution, Nicolas Maduro, rallied in Barinas state, and announced new micro-missions to fight corruption.

Maduro has called his election campaign “Sabaneta to Miraflores”. Sabaneta in Barinas state is where Hugo Chavez was born, and Miraflores is the presidential palace in Caracas. Today, in Sabaneta, Maduro greeted supporters as he toured 50 kilometres of road around the town, then ending the tour with a large rally.

At the rally, Maduro promised that within “one day of being sworn in” as the new president, he would create new “micro-missions” and fight bureaucracy and corruption.  

The micro-missions were a proposal by former president Hugo Chavez which involves people organising themselves to inspect hospitals, companies, and other institutions to ensure that there is no corruption, speculation, or mismanagement of funds.

Maduro then made his way to Maracaibo, Zulia, for another rally.

“We’re going to traverse the land to the last palm tree, we’re going to travel all over the homeland, with all the homeland mobilised, and we’re going to start very early on 2 April to travel the route that Comandante Chavez left us,” Maduro said last week when discussing the election campaign.

Maduro said that he will be visiting up to four states per day.

Both sides have only 10 days to campaign, finishing on Thursday 11 April, with elections to be held on Sunday 14 April.

Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles began his campaign this afternoon in Monogas state. In his speech to the crowd he called for the “lies to be defeated”.

Last night in Caracas the opposition also held a large march against insecurity in the country.  There were few placards on the issue however, but participants waved yellow First Justice flags. First Justice is Capriles’ party.