Chavez Calls Opposition Candidate a 'Low-Life Pig'

President Hugo Chavez has referred to the opposition candidate for Venezuela's highest office as a "low-life... pig" in a sharp attack at the start of this year's election season.

"My mission... (will be) to take off the mask, you low-life, because no matter how much you disguise it, low-life, you have a pig's tail, a pig's ears, and you snort like a pig," Chavez said Thursday in a speech broadcast on state radio and television, referring to opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.

Capriles, 39, easily won Sunday's primary elections to be the opposition's sole candidate but now faces a tough battle against the firebrand president ahead of the October 7 election.

Earlier this week Chavez, in power since 1999, accused Capriles of being "the candidate of the bourgeois, of capitalism, of imperialism."

Capriles, a moderate who describes his politics as center-left, has argued that Venezuela can replicate Brazil's model of economic development, which mixes free market economic reforms and enhanced social programs.

Chavez, 57, a leftist ally of Cuba and harsh critic of the United States, remains popular among the working class, backed by resources including state media, and food and fuel subsidies.