Two Days to the Election

In two days the fate of the country for the next six years will be sealed, yet again. Two presidential elections in one year? How lucky could we be? Well, I’ll tell you: a half day yesterday and no school neither today nor Monday.

People seem to think the opposition candidate (Capriles) has a better chance this time around, and it was close last time. There is word of Chavistas crossing over now that Chavez himself is not in the picture. Maduro, however — Chavez’s hand-picked successor — is still the favorite, but who knows how trustworthy polls are here. At the minimum, lets hope the Curse of Maracapana, which Maduro invoked upon the heads of those who vote for the opposition, doesn’t come true.

Things have been ramping up, to be sure. Our neighborhood favors Capriles, and when I went to stock up on certain groceries yesterday, I came across a creative student demonstration on the main street. Also, a co-worker told me last night that when she was driving home a couple days ago, her car was among a crowd of Maduro buses heading to a rally. At one point the buses passed under an overpass that was chock full of Capriles supporters who were plastering the buses with big soggy balls of crumpled Maduro posters.

At the same time, though, the streets sometimes seem eerily quiet as if people are holding their breath, just waiting to see what happens on Sunday. My friend will be taking pictures of the voting on Sunday so we’ll be sure to bring those to you.

Here are some photos of the neighborhood demonstration.