It’s no coincidence that the elevation of Hugo Chávez to idolatry status is timed to next Sunday’s election.
The cult of adoration reaches a fever pitch as next Sunday approaches, and the election’s timing is no coincidence, in what Caracas Chronicles named “the red canonization“.
Erik Svane of No Pasarán posts on how those frequenting the chavista-run shrine assert that “We Declare Ouselves the Apostles” of Saint Hugo Chávez, “the Christ of the Poor”.
Which brings us to the question, why April 14th?
Erik translates from Marie Delcas’s article in Le Monde (emphasis added)
This polling day turns out to be an important day in the Chávez calendar. Ousted by a coup on 11 April 2002, Hugo Chávez returned a hero on Sunday 14 early in the morning. For Nicolas Maduro, April 14 will be “the Sunday of Resurrection, the Sunday of popular victory, the Sunday of Christ the Redeemer of the poor in Latin America.”
The meaning of April 14th is the apotheosis of the newly-enshrined Hugo Chávez.
Henrique Capriles has been running a good campaign with huge turnout at the rallies,
where he asks his supporters to stay at the polls until after the ballots are counted, yet the race is tightening quickly, but not quickly enough for Capriles to win.
My prediction?
This is a game with loaded dice.
Maduro’s victory – starting with his naming the symbolic April 14th as election day – is accounted for, way ahead of time.
I hope I’m wrong.
UPDATE,
Venezuela: Timidity and Sub-Standard Election Observation
it is most likely that the upcoming electoral process in Venezuela will not have an international observer capable of condemning the unfair tactics of the incumbent government to prevent a free and fair contest.
