CARACAS: Venezuelan opposition candidate Henrique Capriles does his best to keep a cool head as he wades into a crowd that cheers his name, so convinced are they that he can defeat President Hugo Chavez.
Capriles, a fresh-faced state governor with movie star looks who is now the favorite to take on Chavez in the October 7 presidential election, patiently listens to supporters in downtown Caracas and promises to help them.
"Oh, look at him, so handsome, and so thin from walking so much!" gushed Carmen Vargas, 61, as she saw the candidate up close.
Venezuela's traditionally fractured opposition agreed last year to field a single candidate against Chavez, the firebrand left-wing leader who has been in power since 1999 and is running for a third term.
Capriles, a moderate from the center-left Primero Justicia Party, has spent much of the past two years traveling the country to meet with voters, is favored to win the opposition primary on February 12.
"I'm an athlete and I'm accustomed to these long walks," the 39-year-old governor of populous Miranda state told AFP in a brief respite between meeting supporters at the Plaza Venezuela in Caracas.
One of those supporters, Mayra Ramos, 28, elbowed her way through the crowd to give Capriles a small religious icon "to guide you and help you win on October 7."
"Henrique," she said. "You will be the next president!"
Capriles, the youngest of several candidates running in the opposition primary, received a boost in January when popular former mayor Leopoldo Lopez dropped out and gave him an enthusiastic endorsement.
Others vying in the Democratic Unity opposition primary are Zulia governor Pablo Perez, 42; deputy Maria Corina Machado, 45; former ambassador Diego Arria, 74; and labor leader Pablo Medina, 65.
Capriles's background includes a stint as a lawmaker, where he rose to be the head of the Chamber of Deputies.
The chamber was dissolved in a Chavez-inspired constitutional reform in 1999 and replaced by a single-chamber National Assembly.
He was also mayor of the Caracas municipality of Baruta, and he has been governor of Miranda since 2008.
If elected, Capriles has vowed to overcome the nation's polarized politics, bridge the wealth gap between rich and poor, and "govern for everyone."
"Some want to continue dividing Venezuelans," Capriles said, in an indirect swipe at Chavez.
Capriles claims that his presidency would inaugurate a "cycle of progress" in Venezuela by using the same model that led to Brazil's economic boom.
Capriles also promises to address Venezuela's biggest problems, including a dearth of housing, soaring crime and a 28 percent inflation rate, the highest in Latin America.
On the personal side, he is single and, as he puts it, "in search of a First Lady."
A Capriles victory "is the only way for us to get out of this authoritarian regime," said Elias El Barreto, a vendor and Capriles supporter.
"He's a young man that has been involved in politics since he was a youth, and I see a bright future for him," El Barreto said.
Chavez, 57 -- who once said he hoped to govern Venezuela through 2030 -- claims to have fully recovered from a bout of cancer that required surgery last year. Despite the country's problems, he maintains a high approval rating and has cultivated close ties with other left-wing leaders across Latin America.
Capriles "was alone as an opposition presidential hopeful for a long time -- he is the best known of them all," said Luis Vicente Leon of Datanalisis, a polling company.
Capriles is also known for having confronted Chavez back in 1999, when the governor was a lawmaker. "He has managed to present an image of compromise and valor," Leon told AFP.
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