Venezuela election fight to succeed Chavez begins

Nicolas Maduro, the hand-picked political heir of the bombastic populist and leftist firebrand who died last week of cancer, officially registered his candidacy for the April 14 election.

The campaign to succeed the late Hugo Chavez in Venezuela has officially begun and so has the mudslinging, good and thick.

Nicolas Maduro, the hand-picked political heir of the bombastic populist and leftist firebrand who died last week of cancer, officially registered his candidacy for the April 14 election.

So did his opponent, state governor Henrique Capriles, whom Chavez had defeated back in October to win another term, although Capriles gave him a better run for his money than Chavez was used to.

Maduro, a former bus driver who worked his way up the political hierarchy, tried to cash in on a wave of emotion and sympathy in the wake of his mentor's death.

"I am not Chavez, but I am his son and all of us together, the people, are Chavez," Maduro declared to thousands of the late president's supporters, massed outside the National Election Council, as he officially registered to run in the election.

Maduro also vowed to make progress against gun-related crime, one of the top public concerns in this violence-wracked nation, which has a homicide rate eight times worse than the world average.

"There cannot be weapons to kill with, to use in hold-ups; that has got to stop," he said, unveiling a plan to take weapons off streets of poorer neighborhoods.

Capriles, an energetic 40-year-old, kept his followers off the street but warned Maduro on Sunday: "I won't leave you an open path."

Later Monday, Capriles also registered his candidacy.

"This campaign is between you and me, Nicolas. Let's leave the (late) president out of it," Capriles said. He told his supporters, "I do believe we can win.

"We are going to have to fight, but threats are not important. This fight is completely skewed," he added.

Analysts say Maduro is favored heavily. Chavez picked him as his successor in his last public appearance before going to Cuba for cancer surgery in December.

The Venezuelan president died on March 5 and was eulogized on Friday in a lavish state funeral that drew leaders from around Latin America and anti-American allies, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Meanwhile, the US State Department announced the expulsion of two Venezuelan diplomats in a tit-for-tat response to the expulsion of two US Air Force officers by Venezuela last week.

Capriles has accused Maduro of lying about the president's health to buy time to prepare for the elections.