Chavez loyalists mobilize on eve of Venezuela vote

CARACAS

Venezuela's government mobilized behind Hugo Chavez's image Saturday even as the opposition complained that campaign rules were being ignored on the eve of a vote to choose a successor to the late leader.

Although the campaign officially ended late Thursday, acting President Nicolas Maduro has regularly appeared on state-run television, calling on voters to flock to the polls Sunday and vowing to carry on his mentor's socialist revolution.

Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, who accused the government of unfairly using state media and funds during the campaign, wrote on Twitter on Friday that channel VTV was "shamelessly violating the electoral rules."

After a campaign marked by name-calling and government allegations of destabilization plots, the acting leader claimed Saturday that a "dirty war" was being conducted against him from Colombia.

"I alert the country about the dirty war being led from Bogota against the peace of Venezuela and me as a human and president," Maduro wrote on Twitter.

He accused a Venezuelan political consultant, Juan Jose Rendon, of leading a group trying to "sow hatred to incite violence in the country."

On Thursday, Maduro said that a group of Colombian paramilitaries were detained in Venezuela and that explosives were seized.

Throughout the campaign, Maduro accused his political rivals of plotting to kill him, commit acts of sabotage against the electrical grid and refuse to recognize the election results.

The opposition countered that the accusations were "completely false" and urged the government to let voters reflect on the election "in peace."

Maduro planned to visit later Saturday the Caracas hillside barracks where Chavez was laid to rest to commemorate the creation of a civilian militia formed by the late president after a short-lived coup against him in April 2002.

The event will "celebrate Chavez's return to power" 11 years ago on April 13, when loyal troops brought him back to the presidency after his brief, 47-hour ouster, a presidency source told AFP.

Information Minister Ernesto Villegas called for a "tuitazo," or a massive Twitter campaign to send messages about Chavez. He also wrote a series of Tweets criticizing the opposition.

Maduro already visited the tomb on Friday with Argentine football icon Diego Maradona, a close friend of Chavez, and he used the airtime to urge Venezuelans to vote to "continue the legacy" of the late president.

The election follows a lightning campaign dominated by Chavez's legacy, with the late leader casting a religious-like shadow over the election.

The leftist leader, who died on March 5, left behind a country with less poverty thanks to oil-funded social projects that brought health, education and food programs to once neglected poor areas.

But his successor will inherit South America's biggest murder rate, with 16,000 killed last year, and a weak economy with high inflation, soaring debt and chronic shortages of basic foods.

Chavez named Maduro -- a 50-year-old former bus driver who rose to foreign minister and vice president -- as his successor before undergoing his last round of cancer surgery in December.

"We must vote for Maduro, like the comandante asked us to do. There is no other alternative in order to continue the revolution," said Romano Silva, 52, a wood craftsman wearing a fake Maduro-like mustache in the city historic Plaza Simon Bolivar.

Maduro is favored to complete the deceased leader's six-year term, casting himself as his mentor's "son" and "apostle."

Opinion polls have given him leads of up to 20 percent, though the most recent showed he had a 9.7-point advantage.

Capriles, a 40-year-old state governor, has promised to maintain the social "missions" while bringing a more business-friendly economic model inspired by Brazil's center-left.

The opposition candidate lost to Chavez in last October's presidential election by 11 points.