Our special envoy in Venezuela, Brian Mier, updates us on the situation in Venezuela just 2 weeks before the presidential elections in that country. teleSUR
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00:00We are live with our special envoy Brian Mears in Caracas to bring us all the details from
00:05Venezuela ahead of the 28th presidential election.
00:09Hello Brian, what are today's highlights within the ongoing electoral campaign?
00:18Well you know there's only 13 days left until the election and the campaign season is relatively
00:25short.
00:26It started on July 4th and it ends on the 25th so we've just passed the halfway mark.
00:31All of the candidates are out campaigning, they've all got busy schedules and this weekend
00:37President Nicolas Maduro went to the premiere of a new biopic that's been produced about
00:42his life by the Futuro civil society organization.
00:47He also gave a press conference in which he talked about a grassroots mobilizing strategy
00:54which they're going to use to try to increase voter turnout.
00:57It's called 1x10x7 and basically what it means is that every Maduro supporter is being invited
01:08or asked to try to convince 10 people, friends and family, to vote for him this July 28th.
01:15But beyond that they're asking them to ask each of those 10 people if they can request
01:20for another 7 of their friends and family members to vote for Maduro as well.
01:26So it's a kind of rapid expansion grassroots technique.
01:30It's been used in a lot of elections around the world in the past and it's just one of
01:34the many strategies they're using to try and guarantee a higher turnout on this 28th.
01:41In other news, Roman Golovchenko, the prime minister of Borussia, arrived in Venezuela
01:48yesterday and he met with Ivan Gil, the foreign affairs minister.
01:52They've got a busy schedule today.
01:54They're going to be visiting military bases and also just talking about how they can strengthen
01:59the relationships between the two countries, especially in terms of commerce.
02:03So the election's only 13 days off now.
02:07It's going to be held on what would have been the 70th anniversary, 70th birthday of the
02:13late Hugo Chavez, and that is a fact that's not being lost on the millions of supporters
02:18of Chavismo and of Nicolás Maduro and the great patriotic poll.
02:25Ryan, one quick question before ending this little pass with you.
02:31You are there on the ground.
02:32What can you tell us from the perspective of the people, from the Venezuelan perspective,
02:35the mood in which they are going into this electoral campaign ahead of the elections?
02:40Well, you know, there have been some signs of possible attempts to create havoc or violence
02:55exhibited by the far right in cooperation with Colombian paramilitary groups on the
03:01border regions.
03:02Here in Caracas, the mood is very calm.
03:06I don't see any signs that there'll be any trouble here on the 28th.
03:11Ryan, for your latest information on the ongoing electoral campaign ahead of the 28th elections.
03:17We're going to continue with more news.