President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro Moros is expected to follow the former President's unfulfilled wish, but will be a politician with tactics.

Maduro claimed the Venezuela election victory after defeating challenger Henrique Capriles by a narrow majority. Although the challenger's camp has criticized the result, the outcome is a foregone conclusion. The country has already entered the Maduro era.

Maduro, born in the 1960s, whom Hugo Chavez called a "comrade in arms," is a politician who, “with his solid hands, a firm gaze as well as wisdom, knowledge and leadership ability,” will continue to promote the Bolivarian Revolution. Following the death of Chavez, the then Vice President Maduro became interim president and was later elected as President. However, the election was not much closer to what the observers had expected. It appears as though Chavez's funeral politics didn't help during the election. There are two reasons.

Firstly, it is impossible for Maduro to be another Chavez. The latter was as famous as Jose Marti and Simon Bolivar, but Maduro's prestige and personal experience do not equal those of Chavez. If Maduro imitated Chavez' theories and practices blindly, the result may turn out to be unsatisfactory.

Second, today's Venezuela that Maduro has to confront is a disunited country, different from the populist country that wholeheartedly supported Chavez.

In last October's election, the opposition party was beaten by 10 percentage points, but now almost half of the voters don't support Maduro. He has to adjust policies and be open to the idea of reforms to win over the another half.

Unlike Chavez, Maduro doesn't have personal grievances against the U.S., so the Venezuela government may adopt more flexible and pragmatic diplomatic policies in dealing with North America. As Maduro said on the election trail, the Venezuela-U.S. relationship will likely improve. Maduro also likely adjust international diplomacy with the world at large, and will show restraints in assisting foreign governments. Meanwhile, he may make stronger efforts to win recognition from different classes of people.

The author is a researcher from the Charhar Institute, a non-government think-tank on international affairs and relations.

This post was first published in Chinese and translated by Xu Lin.

Opinion articles reflect the views of the authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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