Where do the Venezuelan candidates stand?

“Continue building the XXI Century Bolivarian Socialism in Venezuela, as an alternative to the destructive and savage capitalism,” says Chavez. He has promised to increase agricultural production, improve industrial productivity, and impose price controls on some basic necessities. By the end of his term he wants 90 per cent of Venezuela’s food to be locally produced, and envisions 68 per cent of citizens living on communes.

Capriles says he will increase economic growth to more than six per cent annually. He has pledged to end product shortages, reduce inflation to single digits, encourage exports and improve economic diversification. He plans to reform “strategic sectors” such as tourism, agriculture, and manufacturing. And he has emphasised support for Venezuela’s small and medium-sized enterprises as a solution for unemployment.

Chavez aims to “completely pulverize the bourgeois state form”.”The State must be mediating social conflicts, and must be also a price regulator,” the president has declared.

He has been critical of the state pushing its socialist line and says he wants the government to respect political diversity.”We propose to build a decentralised, transparent, and plural state.” Capriles said the central government should facilitate, and regional governments need to supervise and activate.

Chavez says Venezuela is a key part of a new multipolar world. He wants to continue Latin American integration, with Venezuela playing a leading role in regional bodies such as The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the oil consortium, Petrocaribe. He aims to increase strategic alliances with China, Russia and Brazil, including a loans-for-oil agreement with China. Argentina, Uruguay, Nicaragua, and Cuba have signed major energy deals with Venezuela, exchanging crude for goods and services, rather than just money. He has had serious disputes with Colombia, but he has stated as a priority: “Deepening political dialogue at the highest political level and productive links with the Republic of Colombia.”

“The president has created a club of friends, with the aim of building a global political project that is being financed with oil,” Capriles has said in a critique of Chavez’s petrol diplomacy. Cuba alone has received $3bn worth of Venezuelan crude since 2000. He wants to repair relations with Colombia, which have deteriorated under Chavez, by pledging to step-up the fight against armed groups, including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Chavez pledges to continue buying arms. Plans to expand civilian militias, and increase the capacity of intelligence organisations, in order to “defend the homeland”.

Capriles says the armed forces have become partisan under Chavez. “The army should focus on Venezuela as a country, not on an ideology.” Capriles promises to modernize equipment, and ensure the training of troops.

Chavez expects to raise the school attendance to 100 per cent, and university attendance to 90 per cent. He also wants to increase the enrolment in technical programs to 40 per cent. He aims to improve educational infrastructure and continue the programmes of “school at the factory”, with the goal of improving job preparation and establishing workers’ councils.

He wants to increase school enrollment of children six and under to at least 72,000. Capriles promises to build 900 kindergartens, 2,000 secondary schools, and 80 university buildings. He pledges that schools will have electricity, computer equipment, libraries, and sports facilities. Capriles plans to bolster the budget for universities and improve salaries for professors.

Chavez has pledged to preserve and guarantee the sovereignty of the state over natural resources, by empowering PDVSA, the national oil company. Aims to increase national production from the current 3 million barrels a day, four million by 2014, and 6 million 2016. He plans to promote technological development and scientific research. Chavez wants to explore and exploit the Orinoco Basin, in addition to promoting deepening energy integration with Latin America and the Caribbean. Plans for infrastructure development also include 2,300 km of oil pipelines. In Asia, he plans to collaborate on three new refiners in China, Vietnam, and Syria while accelerating natural gas projects.

He is promising to increase national oil production to 6 million barrels per day (MBD), while guaranteeing autonomy for PDVSA, the state oil company. Capriles says the government will continue paying loans related to the oil sector, to countries such as China, while accelerating exploitation of heavy tar sands crude in the Orinoco basin. He wants greater legal protection for foreign firms in order to increase investments; promising to create 400,000 jobs in the oil sector including 90,000 direct positions and 310,000 indirect jobs.

Venezuela government has said it is determined to fight narcotics trafficking, and will continue carrying out a political battle on this front.

Capriles aims to decisively weaken drug trafficking, a generator violence and crime.

The government has said it aims to eliminate poverty by motivating people to become self-sufficient through self-employment schemes, according to Data Monitor. Chavez said he wants to:”Develop a system of incentives for the promotion of small and medium private enterprises within a framework of social responsibility.”

Capriles aims to create 3 million well-paid and stable jobs over his term, including 500,000 new positions per year with a focus on team work between the public and private sector. The candidate aims to stop the oil dependence.”We cannot progress depending exclusively on the distribution of oil wealth,” he says. “Oil can and should be the lever for transformation, progress and diversification of the country.” Investment is one of the main priorities. “Our commitment is to have a strong economy, which has many new businesses that create many jobs.”

He proposes the creation of new social missions in order to provide large-scale assistance grants for education and housing to help poor communities. These social programmes will be financed by oil revenues.

Capriles wants to create new missions in poor neighbourhoods, keep the existing ones, and improve those that are not working.

He proposes developing a new approach to publish safety, emphasising 79 particular municipalities with the highest crime rates. Chavez wants improve the patrol, prevention and prosecution of crimes, while activating a Communal Police Service at the national level. He has committed to improve the situation inside prisons.

“In almost 14 years the government could not deal with the violence,” Capriles has said. “It increased each year.” The ex-governor wants to increase opportunities for children and establish more trust for police and judicial institutions. He proposes disarmament programs and destruction of illegal weapons. “Anyone who has an illegal weapon, he delivers, or we go for them,” he says. Capriles pledged security of all citizens, no matter their political preference. “Justice is for everyone equally.”