Venezuelans Line Up Before Dawn to Vote in Midtown
Venezuelans Line Up Before Dawn to Vote in Midtown
Polling statistics gathered by the Council of the Americas shows the increased involvement of Venezuelans in New York and abroad during Sunday's presidential elections.
Alejandro Fandiño awoke at 3 a.m. on Sunday and drove from his home in Dover, N.J., to the Venezuelan Consulate in New York, hoping to be first in line to vote in Venezuela’s presidential election.
Mr. Fandiño, 26, who arrived with his mother, stepfather, sister and an aunt, waited for two and a half hours in the cold, damp autumnal darkness before the polls opened. He was the first in line, yet just before he went inside to vote for his candidate, Henrique Capriles Radonski, he ceded his spot to a woman from Caracas, Venezuela, named María.
She said that she had flown 14 hours from Geneva so she could vote in New York and that her return flight left in 45 minutes.
They were among many Venezuelan expatriates who took part in the election. Mr. Capriles, a state governor, had been seen as the first serious challenger to the longtime incumbent, Hugo Chávez, who came to power in 1998 but faced mounting criticism over high murder rates and persistent food and energy shortages. Mr. Chávez was declared the winner late Sunday.
In February, before Mr. Capriles, who had campaigned as a moderate alternative to the left-wing policies of Mr. Chávez, won a critical primary that united the opposition, there were only 56,000 Venezuelans registered to vote abroad. Today, the number is 100,495, according to the Council of the Americas, an educational and economic development organization....
