Racing in Venezuela
A month before the presidential election in the United States, almost 15 million Venezuelan voters went to the polls for the first truly competitive presidential race in 14 years. The Venezuelan opposition to Hugo Chávez united behind an energetic and charismatic challenger, Henrique Capriles. After more than a decade of landslides in favor of Latin America’s foremost anti-American demagogue, polls predicted a tight contest. Americans have closely watched the country that forms the backbone of the region’s socialist bloc yet simultaneously earns 80 percent of government revenue from the more than one million barrels of oil it sells to the United States every day. The Venezuelan presidential election featured two extraordinary politicians, resulting in one of the most exciting recent political contests in the Western Hemisphere.