Venezuela will hold its presidential election on April 14. Polls show that the acting president, Nicolas Maduro, is likely to win over his opposition Henrique Capriles. Maduro as the acting president enjoys many resources that are valuable to the campaign.

The late Hugo Chavez's 14-year presidency was supported by most ordinary Venezuelan people. Maduro has continually invoked the memory of Chavez among these people and called himself "son" of Chavez. As Chavez's handpicked successor, many in Venezuela are in favor of Maduro.

Nevertheless, there are several uncertain factors about the election. Some people have not decided whether to vote for Maduro or Capriles.

Chavez's influence in Venezuela is so enormous that it will continue even now he is gone. The country will follow Chavez's road and not give up on the aggressive attitude toward the US in the short term. Also, the dilemma of economic development cannot be resolved at once.

Venezuela is saddled with electricity shortages, high crime rates, and skyrocketing inflation. All these problems will take time to solve.

No matter who becomes the new leader of Venezuela, the country needs a stable and peaceful transition of politics. And in the long run, the winner of the presidential election has to make some changes to deal with the problems the country faces.

Economically, the leader should pull out all the stops to push the national market to play a greater role in the economic development. The government has to loosen its control over the economy. Venezuela has witnessed the outflow of foreign capital, so how to make great use of foreign investment and how to stop this drain are also priorities.

Moreover, the new leader has to break the old chain of economic development in Venezuela. The country has heavily depended on oil revenues, and oil currently accounts for 95 percent of the country's exports.                                                                                                                                       

As for the complicated relationship between Venezuela and the US, the new leader may have to ease the tensions between the two countries. But the relationship is also decided by their concrete actions.

Venezuela cannot afford to alienate the US entirely, as the US is one of its major oil importers. If the US stops its import of oil, Venezuela will face tremendous difficulties.



The article was compiled by Global Times reporter Zhao Nan based on an interview with Sun Hongbo, associate research fellow at the Institute of Latin America, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. zhaonan@globaltimes.com.cn