Ex-wife takes on Chavez's socialist push

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BARQUISIMETO, Venezuela, Dec 08 (AP): A new voice has emerged to challenge Hugo Chavez's push to turn Venezuela into a socialist society, someone with rare insight into the president's passions and vulnerabilities: his ex-wife.
Marisabel Rodriguez says her return to the public spotlight is not a personal vendetta.
"This fight is not against a single person," she said in an interview at her home with The Associated Press. "This struggle is against the danger posed by leaving a person in power for a long time."
Rodriguez had largely kept out of the public spotlight since she and Chavez divorced in 2004. But the former first lady resurfaced with a series of appearances urging voters to vote "no" in last Sunday's referendum on constitutional changes that would have let Chavez run for re-election indefinitely.
Chavez narrowly lost the referendum, his first defeat at the ballot box in nearly nine years in office.
"We were on the verge of handing over the country to the president like a blank check," she said, calling it a "road straight to totalitarianism."