Chavez foe goes to trial; blames election politics

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles says allies of President Hugo Chavez are using Venezuela's justice system to guard against his possible victory over a ruling-party candidate in next month's elections. Capriles on Sunday pledged to continue campaigning for the Miranda state governor's office, despite a court decision last week to reopen a criminal case against him ahead of the November 23 gubernatorial and municipal elections. Capriles is challenging incumbent Governor Diosdado Cabello, a Chavez confidant. Under Venezuelan law, citizens can only be prevented from running in elections if they have been sentenced or if they are under investigation for acts of alleged corruption. But Capriles said that prosecutors could request his arrest -- before or after the election -- by filing new criminal charges against him and persuading a judge that he could flee the country. "They are setting traps at the last moment with the objective of using the judicial system to stop change," said Capriles, speaking at a campaign rally in Caracas. "The reopening of the case wasn't coincidental." Capriles was acquitted in 2006 on charges of fomenting violence that erupted outside the Cuban Embassy during a short-lived 2002 coup against Chavez, but an appeals court tossed out the decision five months later.