Maduro foes see state win as springboard for revival

A repeat gubernatorial race in the home state of Venezuela's iconic late president Hugo Chavez ushered in a rare victory for the country's US-backed opposition coalition, an outcome it hopes will re-galvanize popular support.

Sergio Garrido of the Acción Democrática party trounced Venezuela's former foreign minister and Chavez son-in-law Jorge Arreaza for the governor's seat of Barinas state in southwest Venezuela. According to results issued by the government-controlled electoral authority (CNE), Garrido secured 55.36pc of the votes, compared with 41.27pc for Arreaza and just 1.77pc for Claudio Fermín, a politician the opposition deems a collaborator with President Nicolas Maduro, Chavez's successor.

"The democratic forces won, the people of Barinas won," Garrido said in a victory speech.

"Even though we increased the vote, we did not achieve the objective," Arreaza said late yesterday in an uncharacteristic concession. "We will continue to protect the people of Barinas in all areas."

The election had been repeated after the CNE declared that the 21 November race was too close to call.

"Having all the political forces and institutional opposition leaders focused on Barinas supporting their candidate motivated voting, channeled anger and resulted in a victory with fundamental symbolism for the opposition," Caracas-based Datanálisis president Luis Vicente León told Argus.

"It has been awhile since we've seen an electoral event in Venezuela in which the electorate voted . . . and the defeated candidate cordially recognized the triumph of his opponent, even before the official declaration."

The outcome vindicates an EU-encouraged strategy of engagement in the political process that some members of Venezuela's mainstream opposition have resisted. Juan Guaidó, recently ratified as nominal head of the coalition, said the result "gave us a lesson in resistance, courage, unity, humility and a freeing up of regional leaderships which we should continue."

León was cautious on the longer-term implications. "The results don't change Venezuela's difficult political reality and we are far from a stable solution, but they are definitely a big lesson on the potential of voting to pressure for change, even when the electoral conditions are disadvantageous."

Stillborn refinery

Venezuela's state-owned PdV produces a scant 8,000-10,000 b/d of crude in Barinas from the Barinas-Apure basin that straddles the border with remote Apure state, only about 1pc of the Opec country's current output. Operations are hamstrung by a high water cut and the presence of guerrillas that have migrated from neighboring Colombia, particularly in Apure, Venezuelan oil industry officials tell Argus.

"The most that the basin can produce is 70,000 b/d, but that is with a lot of investment and taking out the guerrillas from Apure," one of the officials said.

Chavez, who died of cancer in 2013, had sought to build a new oil refinery in Barinas, but there was not enough crude production to supply it.

The 100,000 b/d Batalla de Santa Inés refinery project was meant to meet fuel demand in Barinas and the neighboring states of Portuguesa, Tachira and Merida. The project never got off the ground despite preliminary engineering work by western contractors Axens and Foster Wheeler.

By Patricia Garip