Venezuela opposition chides Chavez over recent weeping jag

* Chavez facing toughest-ever re-election challenge
* Opposition candidate says cry for Venezuela, not Chavez

By Marianna Parraga
CARACAS, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Venezuela's opposition
presidential candidate chided Hugo Chavez on Sunday for publicly
weeping over the loss of freedom he has had to contend with
during his 14 years in power, all part of an increasingly
dramatic campaign ahead of the Oct. 7 vote.
Facing his toughest-ever re-election challenge, socialist
"revolutionary" Chavez teared up during a televised speech on
Saturday, lamenting the loss of his freedom to roam anonymously
through Venezuela's towns and countryside.
Henrique Capriles, the business-friendly candidate seeking
to unseat Chavez, told a rally that the incumbent should not be
crying for himself but for the Venezuelans who have suffered
rising crime and economic mismanagement under his rule.
"Yesterday the government's candidate cried because he wants
to be free. He cried for himself," Capriles told thousands of
supporters at a campaign event in the Petare neighborhood of
Caracas, one of the biggest slums in South America.
"Who cries for the mothers mourning over their children
killed by violence? Who cries when there's not enough food to
feed their families?" Capriles said. "There is nothing worse
than messianic politics."
Wall Street expects Venezuelan bond prices to jump if
Capriles wins. Also in play on Oct. 7 is control of the world's
biggest crude reserves and the future of state oil company
PDVSA, a top supplier of energy to the United States.
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Most of the best-known pollsters put Chavez ahead by 10
points or more. But opinion polls are notoriously controversial
and divergent in Venezuela.
Capriles' numbers have crept up in recent weeks. One major
pollster on Friday put him just ahead of Chavez, 48.1 percent to
46.2 percent - neck-and-neck given the margin of error.
Capriles' street rally on Sunday was his first since rival
supporters threw stones ahead of a campaign event on Sept. 12,
at which a pickup truck carrying opposition campaign materials
was set on fire.
Some glass bottles were thrown at Capriles supporters during
Sunday's rally but his security detail quickly restored order.
Chavez, who has battled cancer over the past year, is known
for long speeches during which he often bursts into song and
digresses into the folksy anecdotes that have endeared him to
many of the country's poor.
But Saturday's lament for his lost liberty caught his
audience of supporters by surprise during an event in the
southwestern cattle-ranching town of San Fernando.
"If it were up to me, you know I'd get down off this stage,
and I'd go walking, as in times past," he said, his voice
quivering and tears rolling down his cheek.
"My last dream is to free myself ... free myself of all of
this, but only after we have made the country that we dream of a
reality," Chavez said at the emotional high point of Saturday's
address.

(Writing by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Eric Beech)