Henrique Capriles Radonski

Early life

Henrique Capriles was born in Caracas on 11 July 1972. His parents are Mónica Cristina Radonski-Bochenek and Henrique Capriles García. His maternal grandparents were Ashkenazi Jews who immigrated from Russia and Poland following World War II. His great-grand parents were murdered by the Germans in the Treblinka extermination camp during World War II. His maternal grandmother, Lili Bochenek, lived for 20 months in the Warsaw Ghetto. Capriles’s paternal grandfather, Armando Capriles-Myerston, was a Sephardi Jew.

Capriles’s father was a successful businessman. In the 1950s, he helped launch Kraft Foods' entry into Venezuela by inviting the vice-president of its Nabisco subsidiary and persuading him to invest in the country. His maternal grandparents, Andrés Radonski and Lili Bochenek, migrated to Venezuela in 1947. Andrés was an engineer active in the cinema business in Poland; he opened his first cinema several years later, in the eastern city of Puerto La Cruz. The company operated under the name Circuito Radonski. It was merged in 1998 alongside Venefilms and Grupo Blanco to create the country's largest cinema chain, Cinex. He is also the descendant of relatives who operated the media conglomerate, Cadena Capriles.

Education

Capriles enrolled at the Andrés Bello Catholic University to study commerce law. He received his degree in 1994, and then continued studies at the Central University of Venezuela. He received a degree in tax law several years later. He took additional studies at the IBFD International Tax Academy in Amsterdam, the Pan American Center of Tax Managers in Viterbo, and Columbia University. He is a sitting member of the International Fiscal Association and the World Association of Young Jurors.

Early years and Chamber of Deputies (1995-1999)

Capriles first ventured into politics between 1995 and 1998, when he aided his cousin, deputee Armando Capriles, in the writing of laws for the Bicameral Commission of Energy of the then-existing Congress of the Republic. Armando, who was a partisan of the Christian democratic party Copei, later offered Henrique the possibility of being a candidate for a seat at the Chamber of Deputies at the 1998 parliamentary elections, affiliating with Copei (Social Christian Party). Capriles accepted, and successfully secured a seat at the Congress in representation of the Zulia state. He became the youngest member ever elected to the Venezuelan parliament, and later held the positions of Vice President of the Congress and President of the Chamber of Deputies.

In August 1999, the Constitutional Assembly abolished Capriles' seat, and dissolved the Congress. Capriles criticized Chavez's new constitution, stating at the time, "This is a corrupt constitution that will leave Venezuela backward and poor", while further denouncing the centralized power that it granted the president.

Mayor of Baruta (2000–2008)

The Congress was replaced by the National Assembly, and new deputees were elected in a general election held, in 2000. That year, Capriles founded the political party Primero Justicia, alongside politicians Julio Borges and Leopoldo Lopez, although the entity had already existed as a civil association since 1992. He did not run for a seat at the newly created Assembly; however, he and Leopoldo Lopez pursued the mayoralties of the Baruta and Chacao municipalities, respectively, at the regional elections held in July 2000. Lopez won with 51,5% of the vote, whereas Capriles received 62,9%. Borges secured a seat in the National Assembly. As mayor, Capriles focused on the reduction of crime within his municipality, as well as on improving the overall infrastructure of the area.

In 2002, President Hugo Chávez was the target of a failed coup d'état that removed him from office on 11 April 2002, after several days of violent protests in Caracas. The coup, triggered by major political discontent in a sector of the Venezuelan population, was initially staged by members of the military and the Venezuelan Federation of Chambers of Commerce (Fedecámaras), represented by its president Pedro Carmona, who was declared the interim president. The following day, the Cuban embassy, located in Baruta, received severe damage, caused by opposition protesters who cut off the water and electricity supply, smashed windows, damaged six staff vehicles, and blocked the Cuban ambassador, German Sanchez Otero, from leaving. The same day, Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin was detained by the municipal police.

Chávez returned to the presidency on 13 April 2002. Capriles then faced charges as a result of the attacks on the embassy. In March 2004, Danilo Anderson publicly declared that Capriles would be arrested; the warrant was annulled in early April. In May 2004, Capriles was arrested on the orders of Anderson, on the grounds that Capriles might flee the country; he was released on probation in September, pending his trial. In December 2006, Capriles was acquitted of the charge of fomenting violence in the siege of the Cuban embassy during the coup attempt, but five months later, his acquittal was annulled by the court of appeal, and the case was re-opened in October 2008. The U.S. Department of State mentioned Capriles' case in its 2008 Human Rights report as a denial of a fair public trial.

Governor of Miranda (2008–present)

In the Venezuelan regional elections, 2008, Capriles was elected Governor of Miranda state, defeating Diosdado Cabello. During his tenure, Capriles invested in education, opening 39 schools by 2011, compared to 7 under the previous governor. Capriles passed on the governorship of the state of Miranda to the Secretary General of Miranda, Adriana D'Elia, on 6 June 2012, in compliance with Venezuelan law which states an incumbent governor cannot run for the presidency of the nation. He was elected again on 16 December 2012, beating former Vice President Elías Jaua.

On 5 April 2017, the Comptroller General of Venezuela notified Capriles that for 15 years, he would be prevented from participating in public office, due to his misuse of public funds, a charge that Capriles denied. Capriles stated that he would not step down and that "I am and will continue being your governor until the people elects another governor". On 8 April 2017, the campaign headquarters for Capriles was attacked with tear gas and fires ignited inside of the building, destroying it. On 11 April, Capriles used his decree powers to order a referendum to determine whether or not he should remain governor of Miranda state, challenging President Maduro to do the same with Venezuelans nationwide and promising he would resign if individuals voted for him to be removed from office. The order by the Comptroller General of Venezuela, if valid, would also prevent Capriles from running in the 2018 presidential election.

2012 presidential election

Capriles was selected in primaries held in February 2012 as the opposition candidate against Hugo Chávez in the presidential elections to be held in October 2012; he won the opposition primaries with 1,900,528 (64.2%) votes of the 3,059,024 votes cast (votes abroad not included).

Capriles named former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as his political inspiration. However, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva endorsed Chávez in the 2012 election.

In February 2012, Capriles was subjected to what some foreign journalists characterized as attacks by state-run media sources. The Wall Street Journal said that Capriles "was exposed in a campaign in Venezuela's state-run media, which insinuated he was, among other things, a homosexual and a Zionist". A 13 February 2012 opinion article published on the web site of the state-owned Radio Nacional de Venezuela, titled "The Enemy is Zionism" mentioned Capriles's Jewish ancestry and a meeting he had held with local Jewish leaders, saying, "This is our enemy, the Zionism that Capriles today represents ... Zionism, along with capitalism, are responsible for 90% of world poverty and imperialist wars." Chavez himself had repeatedly denied allegations of tolerating or promoting antisemitism.

In early September 2012, David De Lima, a former governor of Anzoategui, published a document he said showed secret MUD plans to implement much more neoliberal policy, if elected, than their public statements showed. De Lima said the document was a form of policy pact between some of the candidates in the MUD primary, including Capriles. On 6 September 2012, opposition legislator William Ojeda denounced these plans and the "neoliberal obsessions" of his colleagues in the MUD; he was suspended by his A New Era party the following day. Capriles said that his signature on the document was a forgery, while the MUD's economic advisor said that the MUD had "no hidden agenda", and that its plans included the "institutionalisation" of the government's Bolivarian Missions so that they would no longer be "subject to the whims of government". Nonetheless, several days later four small parties withdrew from the MUD coalition. One small coalition party claimed De Lima had offered them money to withdraw from the MUD; De Lima denied the claim. On 30 September, another opposition politician, Aldo Carmeno from the Christian-democratic party COPEI, withdrew support for Capriles, and accused Capriles of "double speak" and "tricking the Venezuelan people". Carmeno announced his support for Hugo Chávez.

On 7 October 2012, Capriles lost the election to then-President Hugo Chávez.

2013 presidential election

Capriles faced interim president Nicolás Maduro in a presidential election on 14 April, 2013. Voters gave Maduro—who had assumed the role of acting president since Chávez's death—a narrow victory over Capriles. Capriles rejected the results of the election, claiming election irregularities and calling for a full audit of the election results. Maduro said he would accept an audit of the election results; the election board did not agree to opposition demands for a total recount.

Political analysis

According to the Associated Press in 2017:

Personal life

Capriles was raised a Catholic. His parents agreed to educate their children in the Catholic faith "until they were old enough to decide for themselves" as a "compromise". Capriles has continued as a "fervent Catholic" through his adulthood, commenting that his greatest hero in history was Jesus Christ.

He is also the cousin of Miguel Ángel Capriles López, son of the founder of the media organization Cadena Capriles.