Venezuelan Presidential Candidate Fights Antigay Talk

Henrique Capriles

The candidate vying for the position of Venezuelan president after the death of Hugo Chavez said that homophobia is "absolute fascism...from the extreme right."

Henrique Capriles, is running against interim president and former vice president Nicolás Maduro, who had previously used an antigay slur to describe Capriles's party in 2012. Capriles, who is Jewish, was also attacked last year for his religious background, as well as for being presumably gay because he is single.

On Monday, Maduro made another assertion referring to Capriles' sexual orientation during a campaign speech.

"I do have a wife, you know? I do like women!" he said, according to Reuters. His wife, attorney general Cilia Flores, was at his side. She will step down from her post to join her husband's campaign.

Capriles, who is straight, condemned the remarks, and said he would continue to stand up for "respect for all Venezuelans."

"I want to send a message of ... rejection about Nicolas' homophobic declarations," Capriles added, according to Blabbeando. "I believe in a society without exclusion and that's the way I express it to the country. A society where no one feels excluded based on the way they think, their race, their creed, their sexual orientation. People should go out and reject it. That's fascism. Absolute fascism. From the extreme right."