Interim Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has attacked supporters of his rival in the April 14 presidential election as being the "heirs of Hitler."
The leftist Hugo Chavez died on March 5 and his vice-president, Maduro, must now run for office in a special election to complete the late leader's term.
His rival is Henrique Capriles, candidate of the unified opposition and the man the cancer-ridden Chavez defeated in an October vote.
The opposition, Maduro said, are the "heirs of Hitler" because they are conducting a campaign of "intolerance" by criticizing the presence of Cuban doctors in Venezuela and local artists that have joined the Maduro campaign.
Capriles ran a positive campaign against Chavez in October, even as the leftist president slammed him as a pampered member of the "rancid oligarchy" taking orders from Washington.
But with Chavez gone, Capriles -- who is Catholic but has Jewish roots -- is tearing into Maduro, who he derides as a cheap Chavez clone and a puppet of Havana.
A mid-March poll of 1,100 people by the firm Hinterlaces shows Maduro with 53 percent support against 35 percent for Capriles.
Copyright (2013) AFP. All rights reserved.
Related
Before You Go
