One also-ran out, four still in the running

The first withdrawal of the upcoming presidential election is now official: Yoel Acosta Chirinos, one of the main conspirators in the 4-F military coup attempt of twenty years...

Yoel Acosta Chirinos, soon to be ex-presidential candidate

The first withdrawal of the upcoming presidential election is now official: Yoel Acosta Chirinos, one of the main conspirators in the 4-F military coup attempt of twenty years ago and candidate of the dissident Chavista party Vanguardia Bicentenaria Republicana (VBR) announced that he will decline in favor of former colleague and co-conspirator: Hugo Chavez.

Back in late June, Acosta Chirinos explained that his candidacy wasn’t planned but deep differences between VBR and the PSUV forced him to run. He said at the time that he hadn’t spoke with Chavez in three years and blamed this on the comandante presidente’s inner circle. According to sources of El Nacional’s journalist Hernán Lugo-Galicia, this decision is “…about supporting the revolution but not neccesarily the man”.

Beside Chavez and Henrique Capriles, other four presidential candidates continue in the race, but as this blog reported at the start of the campaign, all of them had prior relations with Chavismo in one way or another. The questions now are: Will Acosta Chirinos be the only drop-out of the race? And if he isn’t, who could follow him? Stay tuned…

P.S.: Yes, I’m on vacation right now but I’ll do an occasional post if I have the chance.