Venezuela opposition "grows stronger" after candidate's exit

Two of Venezuela's main opposition leaders joined forces on Tuesday to combine their strategies in an effort to defeat President Hugo Chávez in October's general election.

Leopoldo López, a former mayor, dropped out of the race to throw his support behind center-left state governor Henrique Capriles Radonski ahead of the opposition's February 12 primary. The surprise move is expected to help boost support for Capriles, who was already the favorite to win the Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition nomination. The five candidates that are seeking the nomination have agreed to back the winner of next month's primary.

"Unity has grown and strengthened, and hope for Venezuela is also fortified," said López, the 40-year-old former mayor of the Caracas suburb of Chacao as he announced his withdrawal.

Venezuela's opposition had been bitterly divided in past elections but this time leaders have pledged to come together to keep Chávez from retaining the presidency for a third five-year term.

Chávez has labeled all the opposition candidates as representatives of the "bourgeoisie" but has promised that he will step down if he loses the October 7 election. "They're all the same - they're all the candidates of the rancid, radical bourgeoisie. They are the candidates of the Yankee empire," he said during his weekly Aló, Presidente program on television and radio over the weekend.

"They all represent, as [philosopher] Nietzsche said: nihilism . They are nothing; we are the fatherland."

Capriles, the governor of Miranda state, is ahead in polls by between 10 to 20 percentage points over the other opposition candidates, and is said to be in the best position to defeat Chávez.

The conservative López had been legally barred from holding office based on a decision by the comptroller general concerning allegations of irregularities committed while he was mayor. Last year, the Inter-American Human Rights Court sided with López, who has never been charged or convicted of a crime.

Yet in a confusing decision, the Venezuela Supreme Court ruled that he could run but not take the oath pending the outcome of the graft probe. He claimed that the ploy by the Chávez-backed supporters on the CNE national electoral council was designed to keep him from running. In any case, political analysts believe that his decision to withdraw from the primary race was made after his poor showing in the polls.

Meanwhile, officials were denying a report in a Spanish daily on Monday that the Venezuelan leader has been given only nine to 12 months to live because his cancer had become metastatic. Quoting from a medical report, Abc said Chávez had prostate cancer, which is affecting his bones and colon. "I read it and we laughed a lot because they keep insisting, but they don't see that Chávez is active, working and leading his government and his party," said Aristóbulo Istúriz, vice president of the National Assembly.