He once drove a bus across the
gritty streets of Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, and later rose through the
ranks of the trade union movement.
Now Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s
tall, broad-shouldered 50-year-old vice president, has been anointed as the
possible successor to President Hugo Chavez, should the populist leader’s
recurring cancer force him from power.
The
president’s decision to name Maduro as his heir astonished the oil-rich country,
where many view Chavez as a messiah-like leader with no equal after 14 years in
power.
In a
dramatic televised address Saturday, Chavez extolled Maduro as having the
“heart of a man of the people.” With Maduro seated at his left, Chavez said he
had proved his mettle by loyally serving the government for years, the past six
as foreign minister, hopscotching the globe.
“He is
a complete revolutionary, a man of great experience despite his youth, with
great dedication and capacity for work, for leading, for handling the most
difficult situations,” said Chavez, 58, a former lieutenant colonel who took
office in 1999. “I’ve seen it. We’ve all seen it.”
The
president said that it was his “firm opinion, clear like a full moon,
irrevocable, absolute, total” that Venezuelans should vote for Maduro should
Chavez’s condition sideline him and trigger a new presidential election. The
constitution requires an election within 30 days of a president being forced
from office.
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