Henrique Capriles Radonski, a Catholic grandson of Jewish Holocaust survivors, faces a tough battle against the ‘Chavista machine’ led by Nicolas Maduro

Related: Capriles Radonski announces his candidacy with attacks on family of President Chávez and his memory by Arturo Rosales, in Caracas, Axis of Logic

CARACAS, Venezuela, The Times of Israel (AP) — Opposition leader Henrique Capriles says he will run in April 14 presidential elections to replace Hugo Chavez.

During Sunday night’s announcement, he accused opponent Nicolas Maduro of using Chavez’s corpse as a campaign prop. Maduro is Chavez’s hand-picked successor.

Capriles, a Catholic grandson of Jewish Holocaust survivors, said supporters told him the odds are so stacked against him that running against the Chavista machine would be like being dropped into a meat grinder.

Venezuela’s election commission has set April 14 as the date of the vote, with formal campaigning to start just 12 days earlier. Capriles aide Oswaldo Ramirez said the 40-year-old opposition leader would demand that officials extend the campaign period by moving up the start date by more than a week, and that acting president Nicolas Maduro not be allowed to abuse state resources to boost his chances during the campaign.

Maduro has already announced his intention to run as the candidate of Chavez’s socialist party. On Sunday he picked up the support of Venezuela’s small communist party as well.

In a speech accepting the party’s nomination, Maduro insisted he was running for president out of loyalty to Chavez, not vanity or personal ambition, and called on the people to support him

“I am not Chavez,” Maduro said, wearing a simple red shirt. “In terms of intelligence, charisma, historical force, or capacity to lead… But I am a Chavista and I live and die for him.”

Some say a second defeat for Capriles just six months after he lost last year’s presidential vote to Chavez could derail his political career. If he waits, a Chavista government led by Nicolas Maduro, the acting president, might prove inept and give him a better shot down the road. But staying on the sidelines also would have put his leadership of the opposition.

Analysts predict the next five weeks will increase the nasty, heated rhetoric that began even before Chavez’s death Tuesday after a nearly two-year fight with cancer.

Maduro, who was named Chavez’s vice president after the October election, was sworn in as this oil-rich country’s acting leader Friday night. He is expected to file election papers on Monday

Opposition critics have called Maduro’s ascension unconstitutional, noting the charter designates the National Assembly president as acting leader if a president-elect cannot be sworn in.

On the streets of Caracas on Sunday, opinion was as divided as always in a country that became dramatically more polarized during Chavez’s 14-year rule.

“It’s not fair,” said Jose Mendez, a 54-year-old businessman of the choice the opposition leader faces. “(Maduro) has an advantage, because of everything they have done since Chavez’s death, all the sentiment they’ve created … But the guy has nothing. He can’t hold a candle to Chavez.”

But Ramon Romero said the opposition was just making excuses, and had no chance of victory in any case.

“Now their odds are even worse,” said the 64-year-old waiter and staunch Chavez supporter. “They don’t care about anyone, and we (the voters) have been lifted out of darkness.”

Source: The Times of Israel (AP)