Huge rally for Chávez opponent

Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Caracas yesterday to back opposition presidential candidate Manuel Rosales as he closed his campaign against President Hugo Chávez, who is favoured to win the December 3 vote.

Shouts of ‘‘Dare to change!’’ arose from the crowd that filled the highway, nearby overpasses and streets. Rosales promised democracy for a country that he said is sinking into Cuba-style authoritarianism under Chávez.

‘‘I don’t want to be a president who controls all the branches of government,’’ Rosales shouted to thundering applause. ‘‘Let there be true democracy in Venezuela!’’

He blasted government officials for prohibiting television crews from using helicopters to film the march from the air, saying ‘‘they don’t want the people to see this multitude.’’

A dense crowed spilled for several kilometres along a broad highway beyond the major intersection where Rosales spoke. Some journalists estimated the crowd at roughly 800,000, but there were no official estimates.

Rosales — a state governor who favours free markets over Chávez’s brand of socialism — trailed Chávez by a wide margin in an AP-Ipsos poll conducted earlier this month. Some polls show Chávez ahead by up to 32 points. But Rosales said the vast crowd yesterday was proof he would defeat Chávez. ‘‘It’s Caracas in the streets,’’ he said. ‘‘A great avalanche of votes!’’

Marchers departed from various points in the city of 5 million and converged on the Francisco Fajardo Highway, where they danced to Venezuelan folk music booming from loudspeakers and chanted anti-Chávez slogans.

More than 3,000 police were deployed along the march route to prevent clashes between Rosales supporters and pro-Chávez partisans who gathered on several street corners shouting ‘‘Viva Chávez!’’ as marchers passed. There were no reports of violence.

Rosales lashed out at what Chávez calls his plan for ‘‘21st century socialism,’’ saying it’s nothing more than a plan to be ‘‘president all his life, until he dies like Fidel Castro — indefinite re-election.’’

‘‘It’s Castro communism, the Cubanization of Venezuela,’’ Rosales said. ‘‘This country doesn’t want that. It wants modernity.’’

Chávez, who was first elected in 1998, has said he wants to continue governing Venezuela until 2021 or longer. He said he plans to call a referendum to ask Venezuelans whether they support changing the constitution to allow indefinite re-election. It currently allows two consecutive presidential terms.

Rosales, who temporarily stepped down as governor of the western state of Zulia to run for president, is one of the few opposition politicians to hold on to office as Chávez’s allies have gained solid control of the National Assembly, state offices and the courts.