Capriles visits 100 villages in 29 days of electoral campaign

Villa de Cura, in central Aragua state, became the 100th village visited by Henrique Capriles Radonski, the presidential candidate of opposition umbrella group Unified Democratic Panel (MUD), in 29 days of electoral campaign.

The candidate arrived in Villa de Cura from the villages of Barbacoa, Camatagua, San Casimiro and San Sebastián. At the end of the day, Capriles said that he is set to visit more than 300 villages by September. He added that he is determined to meet people eyeball-to-eyeball to convey his message of progress.

Capriles seized the opportunity to send "affective and respectful" greetings to public employees, and to the military officers commissioned in Aragua state, as well as to their families.

"I know that these towns are not visited by those who want to remain in power. They do not come here. They only visit the big cities. The difference lies in coming to towns, such as Camatagua, and listen to people," said the candidate of the opposition.

He stated that "there is a battle of David versus Goliath in the country: Our only weapon are the votes."

In Camatagua, he participated in a people's assembly where he pointed out that the government priorities are not the same as those of the Venezuelan population. People posed five questions to the candidate, most of which were related to high crime rates in Venezuela.

He called upon people not to resign themselves to the situation of criminal violence hitting the country: "Many prisoners are between 18 and 19 years old. This means that they were five years old when this government began, but they took the path of violence anyway. This government talks as if the country was right, but the reality is very different from what they say on TV."

Additionally, he pointed out that his Security Plan involves the promotion of sports and education, as well as arms control. "Have you seen the government seeking disarmament? No. They protect the weapons because they know where the weapons are." He stated that the government officials lost connection with reality.

In Villa de Cura, he expressed concern about issues such as the lack of adequate education institutions, repeated power blackouts and lack of jobs, as a consequence of the dismantlement of the economic and production system.

"I have been told that many young people here are forced to leave their homes and depart for Guárico state to study because they have no universities (...) I tell you that we are going to build universities in all Venezuelan villages," he stated.

He refused to answer to President Hugo Chávez's insults, and said that his mother taught him "to respect the elderly."

The opposition presidential candidate called upon Venezuelans to post their proposals for the country via Facebook on http://hayuncamino.com/tupropones/.

Translated by Karina Salas