Position: President of Venezuela Incumbent: Nicolas Maduro Date of Birth: November 23, 1962 Term: He became acting president on March 8, 2013, three days after the death of President Hugo Chavez from cancer. Maduro, the ruling Socialist Party's candidate, won the resulting April 14 presidential election and was sworn in five days later. Key Facts:

By Brian Ellsworth and Diego Ore CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles challenged President Nicolas Maduro's narrow election victory before the Supreme Court on Thursday, prolonging what appears to be a futile effort to overturn last month's vote. Capriles refused to accept the results of the April 14 vote for a successor to late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, and called on supporters to take the streets. That led to unruly demonstrations in which the government says nine people died.

President Barack Obama on Saturday dismissed as "ridiculous" Venezuela's allegations that an American filmmaker in the country during last month's elections was a US spy sent by Washington to stir up trouble. "The notion that this individual is some spy is ridiculous," Obama said in a television interview here before heading home Saturday following summit with leaders from Mexico and Central America. "This US citizen... we will handle like every situation where we get a US citizen who gets into some sort of legal tangle in a foreign country," Obama said.

Caracas, May 2 (EFE).- The campaign of opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles on Thursday asked Venezuela's Supreme Court to overturn the April 14 vote that resulted in a narrow victory for ruling-party standard-bearer Nicolas Maduro. The motion applies to the entire process surrounding the special election called after the March 5 death of President Hugo Chavez after a long battle with cancer, attorney Gerardo Fernandez told reporters. "The goal of this appeal is ... that the elections be repeated," he said.