Venezuela’s Maduro pledges to root out corruption

PanARMENIAN.Net - Venezuela’s acting President Nicolas Maduro vowed on Monday, April 8 to stamp out corruption following days of accusations by his election rival Henrique Capriles that ruling party officials were plundering Venezuela's oil wealth, Reuters reported.

Polls show Maduro comfortably winning the election thanks to the goodwill generated by Chavez's social spending measures, although opposition critics had for years accused Chavez of allowing graft among allies to go unchecked.

"I'm going to pursue corruption where ever it is. I'll give my own life to combat corruption if it's necessary," Maduro, who Chavez endorsed as his successor, said at a campaign rally in the eastern city of Maturin.

"We've got great challenges to overcome bureaucracy, corruption and indolence of some officials who turn a blind eye to the problems of the people."

Opinion polls, which are controversial and divergent in Venezuela, give Maduro a double-digit lead over Capriles. The latest private survey by local pollster Datanalisis, cited by the Eurasia Group think tank, gave him 50.2 percent, compared with 32.4 percent for his opponent.

Corruption accusations during Chavez's presidency have focused almost entirely on opposition leaders or elected officials who defected from the Socialist Party ranks. Critics say he avoided pursuing charges against allies.

Capriles, a 40-year-old state governor who lost a presidential election to Chavez last year, says Venezuela needs a fresh start after 14 years of Chavez's hardline socialism.

He says the frequent nationalizations under Chavez's government allowed corrupt officials to control the sale of products ranging from cement to coffee and require desperate buyers to pay bribes to access them.

Capriles wants to install a Brazilian-style administration of free market economics with strong social policies, although former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has publicly endorsed Maduro as his friend Chavez's heir.

Tensions have risen in recent days, fueled by dueling allegations of dirty tricks, and claims by hardliners on both sides that the others are planning violence.

Maduro has accused a Capriles campaign official of conspiring with mercenaries from El Salvador, who the acting president said had entered Venezuela with the aim of killing him and sabotaging the power grid to sow chaos.

The opposition, meanwhile, warned of a government plot to plant illegal arms and explosives on senior opposition officials in order to arrest them before Sunday's vote.

Maduro has also accused the U.S. government of plotting to kill Capriles and then blame it on his administration to trigger civil unrest. Washington denied it.