Chavez power starting to crumble - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Medmech · #1 12-03-2007, 07:46 AM

Chavez Loses Constitutional Vote

Dec 3 02:13 AM US/Eastern
By IAN JAMES
Associated Press Writer

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez suffered a stunning defeat Monday in a referendum that would have let him run for re-election indefinitely and impose a socialist system in this major U.S. oil provider. Voters defeated the sweeping measures Sunday by a vote of 51 percent to 49 percent, said Tibisay Lucena, chief of the National Electoral Council, with voter turnout at just 56 percent.
She said that with 88 percent of the votes counted, the trend was irreversible.
Opposition supporters shouted with joy as Lucena announced the results on national television early Monday, their first victory against Chavez after nine years of electoral defeats.
Some broke down in tears. Others began chanting "And now he's going away!"
"This was a photo finish," Chavez told reporters at the presidential palace, adding that unlike past Venezuelan governments, his respects the people's will.
Exactly a year ago, Chavez won re-election with 63 percent of the vote.
"Don't feel sad," Chavez urged supporters, especially given the "microscopic differences" between the "yes" and "no" options in a referendum that opponents feared could have meant a plunge toward dictatorship.
Chavez's supporters said he would have used the reforms to deepen grass-roots democracy and more equitably spread Venezuela's oil wealth.
The changes would have created new forms of communal property, let Chavez handpick local leaders under a redrawn political map, permit civil liberties to be suspended under extended states of emergency and allow Chavez to seek re-election indefinitely. Now, Chavez will be barred from running again in 2012.
Other changes would have shortened the workday from eight hours to six, created a social security fund for millions of informal laborers and promoted communal councils where residents decide how to spend government funds. The reforms also would have granted Chavez control over the Central Bank and extended presidential terms from six to seven years.
"To those who voted against my proposal, I thank them and congratulate them," Chavez said.
But he also urged calm and restraint. "I ask all of you to go home, know how to handle your victory," Chavez said. "You won it. I wouldn't have wanted that Pyrrhic victory."
Yet he made it clear he would remain a formidable foe.
Echoing words he spoke when as an army officer he was captured and jailed for leading a failed 1992 coup, he said: "For now, we couldn't."
The ever combative Chavez had warned opponents ahead of the vote he would not tolerate attempts to incite violence, and threatened to cut off oil exports to the U.S. if Washington interfered.
All was reported calm during Sunday's voting but 45 people were detained, most for committing ballot-related crimes like "destroying electoral materials," said Gen. Jesus Gonzalez, chief of a military command overseeing security.
At a polling station in one politically divided Caracas neighborhood, Chavez supporters shouted "Get out of here!" to opposition backers who stood nearby aiming to monitor the vote count. A few dozen Chavistas rode by on motorcycles with bandanas and hats covering their faces, some throwing firecrackers.
Opponents—including Roman Catholic leaders, press freedom groups, human rights groups and prominent business leaders—feared the reforms would have granted Chavez unchecked power and threatened basic rights.
Cecilia Goldberger, a 56-year-old voting in affluent eastern Caracas, said Venezuelans did not really understand how Chavez's power grab would affect them. She resented pre-dawn, get-out-the-vote tactics by Chavistas, including fireworks and reveille blaring from speakers mounted on cruising trucks.
"I refuse to be treated like cattle and I refuse to be part of a communist regime," the Israeli-born Goldberger said, adding that she and her businessman husband hope to leave the country.
Chavez, 53, is seen by many as a champion of the poor who has redistributed more oil wealth than any other leader in memory.
Tensions have surged in recent weeks as university students led protests and occasionally clashed with police and Chavista groups.
Lucena called the vote "the calmest we've had in the last 10 years."
___

sfloriII · #2 12-03-2007, 08:34 AM

I'm happy to see that he accepted the results. 'Course, I'm not holding my breath.

POS · #3 12-03-2007, 09:14 AM

I'm also waiting for him to "retain his power" militarily. Good riddence, Chavez. Don't let the door...

John Doe · #4 12-03-2007, 09:32 AM

'Course Putin got his pre-cursers to extended rule passed on the same day.....

LUVMBDiesels · #5 12-03-2007, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sfloriII

I'm happy to see that he accepted the results. 'Course, I'm not holding my breath.

Really... I can't imagine him going away quietly. Not when he considers himself the successor to Fidel and the leader of the Latin American Left.

I think he will either pull another coup (granting himself everything he lost inthe election by Presidential decree. That would be easy just claim the CIA made him loose the election and that he really won) or if he DOES leave power, to stage a revolution from outside whatever government replaces him.

Hatterasguy · #6 12-03-2007, 12:06 PM

He isn't going anywhere. Sadly.

BENZ-LGB · #7 12-03-2007, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sfloriII

I'm happy to see that he accepted the results. 'Course, I'm not holding my breath.

Exactly my feelings.

He is determined to seize power and this is only a minor setback, a small humiliation which he will use to his own advantage.

Txjake · #8 12-03-2007, 12:28 PM

too bad the CIA can't do to him what we did to Che'...............

Botnst · #9 12-03-2007, 12:59 PM

I was surprised and pleased that Chavez accepted the results of defeat and did so publicly. So what if it's a political maneuver to minimize and put the best perspective on loss -- it is still a public acknowledgment of the supremacy of the voters. That is good for emerging or threatened democracies everywhere. Especially in Venezuela.

B

Jim B. · #10 12-03-2007, 01:02 PM

He wants to be a dictator like Fidel Castro. Looks like enough Venezuelans have had enough "taste of the honey" they don't like that idea so much.

Only his "Robin Hood" act played well to the poor and uneducated.

I'm not very sure about how popular he really is with the educated, and better off and middle classes.

Cozying up to Castro and Ahamdinejad, thinks he is some latter day Che Guevara, or something, thumbing his nose at the big, bad US of A.

Just a tinpot dictator wannabe.

As I said elsewhere, the King of Spain had his number pretty well down when he told the guy to "shut up".

To most South Americans, he probably comes across as "some dirty Indio, not fit to even shine the shoes of the Spanish King."

Like it or not, in South America, they admire things Europeans, and Spanish - the whiter you look, the better. This is just is how it is, down there.

And frankly, Chavez really does look a LOT like an he is an Indio;he comes across as lower class; he would never be mistaken for anybody born in Spain.

Never.

Botnst · #11 12-03-2007, 01:08 PM

An interesting feature of this whole event is the role of university students.

In the past, students generally have supported leftists like Che' and others. In fact, one way to look at Argentina and Uruguay's 'dirty wars' was as an intergenerational conflict. Also the always dependable students in Paris are guaranteed to support the leftist agenda du jour.

In the case of Venezuela, the students demonstrated in support of democracy, not for (or against) a socialist or authoritarian government policy. This is really good news -- that the students value democracy above all other political interests. Good for them!

B

jlomon · #12 12-03-2007, 01:25 PM

Is there anything to stop him from holding another referendum? He's got 4+ years left on his mandate, and he's blaming this narrow loss on the fact that his supporters didn't come out in the numbers he expected (only 56% of eligible voters turned out).

I'll bet his acceptance of this result is based on the fact that he plans to try again, and figures that he can overcome the narrow margin of victory next time. If he lost by a larger margin he might not have been so accepting.

BENZ-LGB · #13 12-03-2007, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlomon

Is there anything to stop him from holding another referendum? He's got 4+ years left on his mandate, and he's blaming this narrow loss on the fact that his supporters didn't come out in the numbers he expected (only 56% of eligible voters turned out).

I'll bet his acceptance of this result is based on the fact that he plans to try again, and figures that he can overcome the narrow margin of victory next time. If he lost by a larger margin he might not have been so accepting.

You've hit the nail on the head.

The narrow margin of defeat just means that he will try again.

He is blaming his defeat ont eh fact that he was asking for "too much."

Next time it will be a smaller "package" which will pass. Then he will ask for a little bit more. And so on and so on, until he gets all he wants.

John Doe · #14 12-03-2007, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim B.

And frankly, Chavez really does look a LOT like an he is an Indio;he comes across as lower class; he would never be mistaken for anybody born in Spain.

Never.

Bigot.

I hope a native Native American runs for Senate in CA and you have to lick his boots.

MTI · #15 12-03-2007, 02:21 PM

I must have missed it on my calendar . . . is it "Personal Attack Monday" already?