Aide says Capriles meets with military brass

By Fabiola Sanchez, Associated Press —

CARACAS, Venezuela — A senior campaign aide for Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles says Capriles is meeting with members of the country’s military high command.

The meeting comes more than 4½ hours after polls closed in an election to replace the late President Hugo Chavez.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information.

He was not familiar with the content of the talks but Capriles’ camp has suggested privately that it believes it is winning the vote count.

Chavez’s choice to succeed him, acting President Nicolas Maduro, has been engaged in a tweeting war with Capriles in the past hour.

Independent security analyst Rocio San Miguel tweets that Interior Minister Nestor Reverol was also meeting with senior military commanders.

Government supporters chant slogans praising Venezuela’s late President Hugo Chavez at opposition supporters, outside a a polling station that had remained open about 20 minutes past the allotted time, in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, April 14, 2013. Although no was waiting to vote, the polling station remained open past 6:00 p.m., until demands by a group of opposition supporters were met for the station to be closed. Voters were deciding Sunday whether to elect interim President Nicolas Maduro, who served as late President Hugo Chavez’s foreign minister and vice president or opposition candidate Henrique Capriles in a special presidential election to replace Chavez who died of cancer on March 5. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)