Elections’ Race Between “Two Lefts” · Global Voices
Iria Puyosa

The official announcement of Teodoro Petkoff’s candidacy turned Venezuela 2006 presidential race on. Since April 20th, when the announcement was made, the Venezuelan political debate has been focused on what the editor of daily newspaper Tal Cual has to offer to the voters. Venezuelan bloggers have been debating Petkoff’s announcement from diverse perspectives:
Rayas y palabras highlights the ability to lead democratic dialogue as the main characteristic that differentiates Petkoff from President Chávez, who leans toward authoritarianism. According to HLP’s judgement, both leaders are not far apart regarding their approach to social policy.
Blog de RomRod points out that Petkoff’s major drawback is his lack of electoral machinery to reach the poor neighborhoods where Chávez’s personal appeal penetrates.
UnoConTodo claim that Petkoff’s candidacy generated hysteria among chavistas. Nonetheless, pro-Chávez blogs have been only  copying and pasting a few articles from other pro-government sites in which Petkoff is labeled as neoliberal and accused of being an IMF agent. The best pro-Chávez blogs, such as El espacio de Lubrio are avoiding the topic of the country's most famous guerilla fighter, Teodoro Petkoff, running for President.
The strongest criticisms against Petkoff come from abstentionists, who characterize the socialist democratic leader as a Trojan horse, infiltrated by chavismo in order to break the opposition boycott against the elections. Meanwhile, libertarian  bloggers regard Petkoff—as well as the others presidential candidates — as Little Chávez, populists, who are not going to promote the country's economic development.
English posts that contain "Teodoro Petkoff" per day for the last 30 days.
~
Venezuela – 2006 Presidential Elections  / Teodoro Petkoff