Venezuelans cast votes for president in Louisiana

Sequera, 37, came to the U.S. for a chance to go to college in 1997. He went back to Venezuela in 2002 and returned to the U.S. in less than a year upon finding his home country in ruins, he said — unsafe and unstable.

"This election means everything," said Sequera, who still has many relatives in Venezuela. "It means whether we become a communist country like Cuba or become more progressive with a future of opportunity and freedom for our people. It really is a struggle between good and evil."

Sequera was among thousands of U.S.-based Venezuelans who flocked to New Orleans by bus, car and airplane to vote. The election pits Chavez, who has been in office 13 years, against Henrique Capriles, a 40-year-old state governor who has pledged solutions to crime, corruption and poorly run public services.

Most Venezuelans in the U.S. are professionals or businesspeople who left their country after Chavez became president in 1999. Most Venezuelan voters in the United States live in the Miami area, and the vast majority of those are critical of the Chavez government.

Voting was held in New Orleans because the consulate in Miami was closed earlier this year after the State Department expelled consul Livia Acosta amid an investigation into recordings that seemed to implicate her in an Iranian plot for a cyber-attack against the U.S.

The closure affected nearly 20,000 Venezuelan voters living in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina who had registered to vote at the Miami consulate. That's only a fraction of the 18.9 million registered voters in Venezuela, but the vote is expected to be a close one.

Venezuelans around the world also came out to vote en masse: An anti-Chavez Venezuelan television station showed people traveling to a consulate in Germany to vote, and others voting in Panama.

Sequera said the closure did not deter the thousands who turned out, chanting "Venezuela" and waving their nation's flags from cars. A street party unfolded as voters left the convention center, where votes were cast because New Orleans' consulate couldn't handle the crowds. Vendors sold food and drinks to the cheering crowd.