FEATURE-Flagship health project stirs Venezuelan politics

* Network of clinics gives free healthcare to poor

* Government, opposition seek political gain from project

* Chavez still popular, but faces fight at 2010 vote

By Andrew Cawthorne

CARACAS, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Posters of Fidel Castro, Ernesto "Che" Guevara and Hugo Chavez adorn the inside of a small circular building where Cuban and Venezuelan doctors attend a steady trickle of patients in a poor neighborhood.

"I don't care what you call this -- socialism, charity, whatever you like -- but it works for me!" said a smiling Jose Fuentes, removing an oxygen mask after a weekly session at one of the free 'Barrio Adentro' (Inside the Neighborhood) clinics in the Venezuelan capital.

For supporters, President Hugo Chavez's flagship social project, with around 15,000 mainly Cuban doctors in more than 6,000 clinics, illustrates the best of his decade-long rule: a commitment to the poor and tangible results.

Critics, however, say 'Barrio Adentro' is a political project illustrating the dangerous "Cubanization" of Venezuela. Half of the two-storey, red-brick clinics are collapsing, local doctors have been pushed out of jobs by Cubans, and traditional hospitals are underfunded, they argue.

With National Assembly elections looming for late 2010, both the government and the opposition have latched onto Barrio Adentro in recent weeks as a totemic issue to try and sway voters.

Barely a week goes by without Chavez appearing several times beside doctors at meetings, or inside medical installations, to promote the project's "re-launch".

Pro-opposition newspapers, on the other hand, have been running a series of photos of rundown and empty clinics, giving an impression of government neglect.

"Just as Barrio Adentro helped him win some elections in the past, so it might help him lose them now," Jorge Diaz Polanco, a medical expert at Venezuela's Central University, told one of those newspapers, El Nacional.

At half a dozen clinics visited by Reuters in the sprawling "January 23rd" district of Caracas this week, there were few complaints about Barrio Adentro, or Chavez, from medical staff, patients and local residents.

CHAVEZ' "SOFT SPOTS"

Further afield, though, the picture is not so unanimous.

While Chavez maintains a popularity rating of around 50 percent, Venezuelans grumble more and more about chronic crime, runaway inflation, unemployment, and -- the newest problem -- electricity and water cuts.

"I think there are a combination of soft spots that are mounting for the government," said Michael Shifter, of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, after a recent visit to Venezuela. "The question is whether there is any alternative that is attractive for people to gravitate towards."

Most analysts do not think the "soft spots" will be enough for Chavez to lose control of the National Assembly, which he has dominated since an opposition boycott at the last vote in 2005.

But he may see his United Socialist Party of Venezuela's majority trimmed and lose some of his all-powerful aura, making him more vulnerable when he again seeks re-election in 2012.

According to a survey published this week by local pollster Datanalisis, 21.5 percent of Venezuelans consider themselves pro-government, 17.4 percent pro-opposition, and 54 percent without affiliation.

"Next year it's going to be a real fight," said Karen Hooper, Latin America analyst at U.S.-based think tank Stratfor. "It's not a question, though, of when the opposition will win, but rather when Chavez might lose."

Buoyed by disgruntlement over social problems, Venezuela's myriad opposition parties believe they have a real shot at taking control of the assembly. But they have few if any nationally-popular figures, struggle to show a united front, and have lost various leaders through exile, corruption investigations, or political sidelining by the state.

"About 60 percent of Venezuelans are not 'Chavista', but we have to be honest and recognize that they are not ours either," one opposition leader told Reuters in an off-the-record chat.

"His support in rural areas remains solid. In the cities, people are getting tired of Chavez, but we haven't yet given them a clear, united alternative."

Hooper said OPEC member Venezuela's stuttering economy -- growth is likely to be negative this year, while inflation will be in the high 20s -- is the main challenge to Chavez, though the rally in oil prices would help gloss over problems.

"I think the question could come down to what the economy does," she said. "I really think that inflation is the biggest deal here. I'm not really hopeful for the Venezuelan economy." (For more on the challenges to Chavez, click on [ID:nN27214159]) (Editing by Patrick Markey and Kieran Murray)