Election a test for Chavez family in home state

Two brothers are close
Adan, a year older than Hugo, is the eldest, and has been the president's aide, education minister and ambassador to Cuba. A bespectacled former physics professor, he has his brother's beefy build and features but lacks his charisma and fiery speaking manner.

The two were raised largely by their grandmother in a dirt-floored home with a roof of palm fronds, and share a closeness that is a selling point for Adan in the campaign.

In 1998, their father became governor and Hugo Chavez was elected president.

Some opponents accuse the Chavez family of using the state as its personal hacienda. Lawmaker Wilmer Azuaje has taken his accusations before congress, saying brothers Argenis and Narciso Chavez profited from family power and acquired 17 ranches through go-betweens who allegedly put properties in their names. Again, the authorities say they have found no evidence of wrongdoing.

A particularly contentious issue is emergency decrees. The governor's opponents say he has declared them for all manner of non-emergency objectives, and that they have been used to flout public bidding and favor particular contractors.

The state's planning secretary, Aristides Gil, says they were used sparingly and all were legal. But official audit reports from as early as 2001 warn of "indiscriminate use of emergency decrees" under the governor.

The AP reviewed decrees in Barinas from 2004 to 2006 and found 18 citing an "emergencia."

On March 9, 2005, the governor declared an emergency in "all of Barinas state's road system"; in November 2005, an emergency to accelerate statewide school construction; two months later, an emergency need to prepare for sports events, refurbishing the stadium that hosted the 2007 Copa America football championship, and Adan Chavez's election rally.

Some defenders have argued that to achieve Chavez's ambitious, oil-financed goal of putting Venezuela through a rapid social revolution, government by decree is sometimes justified.

Long-standing problem
But skirting public bidding to benefit cronies is a long-standing problem in Venezuela. In Yaracuy state, former Chavez ally Gov. Carlos Gimenez was recently forced to step down and is being prosecuted on suspicion of bypassing bidding to favor one contractor.

The stadium say, critics say, was far too expensive at some $93 million and has dragged on. Work on two of its four lighting towers is still uncompleted.

As for the road-paving blitz, farmer Jose Zapata says one stretch in his area of southern Barinas is "pure potholes."

In the town of Sabana de los Negros, parents whose children's classroom is in a converted pool hall have been promised a high school will finally be finished in December after years of stop-and-start construction.

Yraima Rangel, whose 14-year-old son is one of those waiting for a proper classroom, strongly supports the president but feels politicians in Barinas only notice the voters' problems at election time.

"When the campaign is over and they settle in, what happens no longer interests them," she said.

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