The same reason Chavez choose him is the same reason you see these frenzied attacks on him by the usual corporate clowns and their parrots.
Maduro was born a Leftist, into a politically active Leftist family, unlike Chavez who started out espousing neoliberal policies and very quickly made his way to the Left the more he learned and experienced.
The man named by President Hugo Chávez as his political heir, should he become too ill to govern, is described as an imposing figure and a conciliatory force in the classroom by Grisel Rojas, a classmate during the 1970s.
"He would address us during the assembly to talk about students' rights and that sort of thing. He didn't speak much, and wasn't agitating people into action, but what he did say was usually poignant," says Rojas, now 50, and the school's principal.
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Born in 1962 into a leftist family as the son of a union leader, Maduro began his political career as president of the student union at school from where, records show, he never graduated. He joined the ranks of the Socialist League and worked as a bus driver for the Caracas Metro company, where he followed in his father's footsteps and founded one of the company's first informal labour syndicates at a time when the company banned unions.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/12/hugo-chavez-heirDavid Smilde, a sociology professor at the University of Georgia who studies Venezuela, said Maduro's appointment is significant and shows the type of leadership Chavez wants to emphasize.
"He is among the true leftists in the Chavez government. He believes in state control of the economy, anti-imperialist foreign policy, and the predominance of the executive over other branches and levels of the government," Smilde said.
"My guess is that making Maduro VP has a lot to do with Chavez's health," Smilde said. "As a potential successor to Chavez, Maduro is someone who would continue with the leftist elements of Chavez's project, keep the base happy, continue close relations with Cuba, but perhaps be more comfortable in political negotiations than other potential successors or Chavez himself."
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In his youth, Maduro belonged to a small political group called the Socialist League and traveled to Cuba for training in union organizing. He became a union organizer when he was working as a bus driver in Caracas.
"Look where Nicolas is going, the bus driver," Chavez quipped as he announced the appointment. Maduro smiled in the audience as the president said: "Look how they've mocked him. The bourgeoisie makes fun."
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http://bigstory.ap.org/article/venezuelas-new-vp-be-key-figure-chavez
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