Caracas Chronicles

Is this a good thing? Chavistas seem to think so. I think not.

Where chavismo sees youth and fresh faces, I see inexperienced, untested candidates that will not convince the average voters. It hasn’t taken them long to screw up.

Case in point: Jorge Amorin, the chavista candidate for Miranda’s 3rd District, encompassing much of Petare.  

Amorín, a pro-government ambush journalist by trade, has long been the favorite of the VTV-wing of the party headed by the notoriously abrasive host of La Hojilla, Mario Silva.

He is a skillful communicator, as can be seen in this video, and he is certainly ideologically pure and can probably make the case that he is untainted by the corruption in chavista circles. Those are all positives.

So what is his first statement upon being selected?

That his main goal in the AN will be to curtail the power of Petare’s mayor, Carlos Ocariz, and of Miranda’s Governor, Henrique Capriles. Foot, meet mouth.

To get a sense of what a screw-up this is, consider that the same day he said this, Pro-Chávez pollster IVAD puts Ocaríz’s approval rating at a stratospherical 81%. That’s 40 points (yes, forty) above the approval ratings for Chávez in that same district. The same pollster put Capriles’ ratings in Miranda in the 70s just a few weeks ago.

In fact, the same poll says that 40% of Petare’s voters would support their mayor’s candidate, while only 24% would support Chávez’s.

Attacking a popular mayor is bad enough. But saying your first priority will be to curtail his powers is downright suicidal. It makes me wonder which team Amorín is playing for.

The PSUV is boasting their roster of candidates has a lot of new blood. Come September 27, I wonder if they will still believe that.