The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, has encountered an intriguing complication as he attempts to restore his popularity after a series of embarrassing political setbacks. A 30-year-old man claiming to be his illegitimate son has come forward with political ambitions of his own.

Salomon Fernandez bears a striking physical resemblance to Chavez and has provided evidence of his identity to Venezuelan intelligence officials. He has met Chavez’s parents – who he claims are his grandparents – and has become friendly with one of the president’s aunts.

Yet Chavez has declined either to acknowledge or to repudiate his would-be son, who has upset officials in the ruling Socialist party by seeking to enter politics in his home state of Carabobo.

Last week Fernandez spoke to The Sunday Times about his unsuccessful attempts to reach his father and his belief that senior party officials were obstructing his access to Chavez for fear that their authority could be undermined if the president discovered a new favourite.

“Although we don’t talk, each of us knows the other exists,” Fernandez said. “And he is the example I follow.”

Fernandez, a former sailor in the merchant marine, carries a photograph of Chavez with his mother, Carmen Fernandez, who told her son of the identity of his father after suffering heart problems in 2001.

The couple met in the late 1970s when Chavez was a young army officer based in the city of Maracay. True to his reputation as a lothario, Chavez went out with Carmen while he was also dating Nancy Colmenares, who would later become his first wife.

When Fernandez discovered that his father was Venezuela’s president, he wrote numerous letters to the presidential palace, pursued other Chavez relatives and even joined the audience of Alo Presidente (Hello, Mr President), the television chat show that Chavez hosts on Sundays.

He has never received a reply, even after he contacted Rosario Frias, Chavez’s aunt, who took to him immediately. “She loves me a lot,” he said. But he also admitted that Chavez’s mother, Elena Frias, did not yet believe that he was her grandson.

Confirmation of his identity should be simple in the age of DNA comparisons, but Chavez has shown no inclination to establish the truth and halt the speculation in Venezuelan newspapers. Fernandez claimed last week to have been blocked from standing as the Chavez party candidate for governor of Carabobo by unnamed “party elites”. Undeterred by his father’s reluctance to recognise him, he has been campaigning for Chavez since 2004 and is well known locally as a party activist.

Chavez has had four children from two marriages, both of which ended in divorce. Marisabel Rodriguez, his second ex-wife, and Herma Marksman, a former mistress with whom he had a nine-year relationship, have both been critical of his outspoken anti-American policies.

Fernandez said he yearned to meet his other siblings, especially Chavez’s eldest child, Maria Gabriela, who has become a fixture at the president’s side. Chavez’s youngest daughter is nine.

“I’d like to speak to him to let him know I love him and admire him,” Fernandez said. He has thought of standing for governor as an independent, which may persuade Chavez to intervene.

“We could possibly have a meeting,” he said, “both a political and a family meeting – but more family, I hope.”

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