Chávez: "We still have time to persuade the undecided"

Venezuela's president and candidate for reelection, Hugo Chávez, asserted on Wednesday on a visit to the town of Coro, Falcón state (northwest Venezuela) that the request for a TV debate made by the presidential candidate for the opposition Unified Democratic Panel (MUD) Henrique Capriles a few days ago, "shows that they are losing," because, from his point of view, the trend favoring Chavezism is "irreversible."

The Head of State asserted that Capriles was a "political illiterate," and asked, "Who is going to debate with you, boy? First, you have to learn how to talk." He added that the opposition hopeful was a plastic candidate, a "product of marketing."

Chávez explained that 11 days ahead of the election, it was important to win "with the highest possible lead, in order to hamper the destabilizing plans of the bourgeoisie. (...) Nobody should think Chávez has already won, so I am not going to vote,'" he alerted. Moreover, he asserted, "we still have time to persuade more than one undecided."

Earlier on Wednesday, in an inspection to a residential complex being built in Fuerte Tiuna military base in Caracas, aired in a mandatory radio and television broadcast, Chávez addressed the wealthiest sectors of Venezuela, saying that "bourgeoisie itself was not bad; what is really perverse is to have a State subordinated to the bourgeoisie, (...) they take over the Executive and Legislative powers to pass laws that benefit their elite.