Chávez Gets a Presidential Rival

Watch out, Hugo. Henrique Capriles Radonski, the governor of the state of Miranda, will oppose Venezuela’s entrenched socialist leader Hugo Chávez after winning the first-ever opposition primary. Capriles won easily, with an unexpectedly high turnout and the unified support of other opposition candidates. However, Chávez still polls well, and his extensive welfare policies are popular in Venezuela's poverty-stricken slums and rural areas. Capriles, the grandson of Polish fugitives from Nazi prosecution, says he admires Brazil’s “modern left” economic model, which mixes state spending and private enterprise.