Thread: Stunning Defeat: Chavez Loses Constitutional Vote

Chavez Loses Constitutional Vote
Dec 3, 3:18 AM (ET)
By IAN JAMES


Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez casts his ballot at a polling station in Caracas, Dec. 2, 2007

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 supplier.

Voters rejected the sweeping measures Sunday by a vote of 51 percent to 49 percent, said Tibisay Lucena, chief of the National Electoral Council. 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 he has "heard the voice of the people and will always continue to hear it."

Chavez said his respect for the outcome should vindicate his standing as a democratic leader.

"From this moment on, let's be calm," he declared. "There is no dictatorship here."

Critics - including Roman Catholic leaders, press freedom groups, human rights groups and prominent business leaders - feared the constitutional reforms would have granted Chavez unchecked power and threatened basic rights.

"Don't feel sad," Chavez urged supporters, who gave him a re-election victory with 63 percent of the vote exactly a year ago. He blamed the loss by "microscopic margins" on low turnout among his supporters. Voter participation was 56 percent overall.

The defeated reforms would have created new forms of communal property, let Chavez handpick local leaders under a redrawn political map, lengthened presidential terms from six to seven years and let Chavez 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.

Along with several hundred other dejected Chavez supporters, Nelly Hernandez, a 37-year-old street vendor, cried as she wandered outside the presidential palace amid broken beer bottles while government employees dismantled a stage that had been prepared for a possible victory.

"It's difficult to accept this, but Chavez has not abandoned us, he'll still be there for us," she said between sobs.

Chavez urged calm and restraint. "To those who voted against my proposal, I thank them and congratulate them," he said.

"I ask all of you to go home, know how to handle your victory," the 53-year-old president said. "You won it. I wouldn't have wanted that Pyrrhic victory."

Tensions had surged in recent weeks as university students led protests and occasionally clashed with police and Chavista groups.

Chavez made it clear, though, that he has no intention of abandoning his petrodollar-fueled attempt to turn Venezuela into a socialist state. He has progressively steamrolled the opposition, with his allies now controlling the National Assembly and most other elected posts.

And he suggested he hasn't given up on his vision of permanently leaving his mark. Echoing words he spoke when as an army officer he was captured leading a failed 1992 coup, he said: "For now, we couldn't."

At opposition headquarters in an affluent east Caracas district, jubilant Chavez foes sang the national anthem.

"We've put a stop to the socialist authoritarian project," said one leader, Leopoldo Lopez. "Now we're opening the way to democracy."

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.

Chavez, who was briefly ousted in a failed 2002 coup, said of his opponents: "I hope they forget about shortcuts, leaps into the dark - violence."

A close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Chavez is seen by many supporters as a champion of the poor and has redistributed more oil wealth than any other leader in memory.

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.

Lucena called the vote "the calmest we've had in the last 10 years."
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071203/D8T9ROLG1.html

Bush administration pleased with Chávez defeat
Posted on Mon, Dec. 03, 2007Digg del.icio.us AIM reprint print email
By PABLO BACHELET
pbachelet@MiamiHerald.com


WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration on Monday hailed as a victory for democracy the rare electoral defeat handed to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, its most vociferous foe in Latin America.

Chávez narrowly lost a referendum on constitutional reforms that would have allowed him to seek unlimited reelection and press ahead with his socialist revolution. The defeat reinvigorated a Venezuelan opposition humbled by 11 straight election defeats.

The Bush administration kept a low profile during the campaign, wary of transforming an event into a U.S.-Venezuela confrontation. Chávez regularly casts his opponents, both in Venezuela and abroad, as U.S. stooges.

''We congratulate the people of Venezuela on their vote and their continued desire to live in freedom and democracy,'' Gordon Johndroe, a White House National Security Council spokesman, said in an e-mail to The Miami Herald.

The State Department also was pleased.

''We felt that this referendum would make Chavez president for life, and that's not ever a welcome development,'' U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told reporters in Singapore, according to the Associated Press. ``In a country that wants to be a democracy, the people spoke, and the people spoke for democracy and against unlimited power.''

Florida Republican Rep. Connie Mack, an outspoken congressional opponent of Chávez, shot off a statement headlined ``Freedom wins!''

''The people of Venezuela have spoken,'' he said. ``They want to live in freedom. They have rejected Hugo Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution. They despise his vicious assaults on freedom and free markets, and they fear his cozy relationships and friendships with the likes of the Iranian Mullahs.''

But Mack warned that Chávez still has five years in office, ``a long window for him to continue to make mischief in Venezuela and around the world.''

Roger Noriega, former assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, believed the margin of victory was broader in favor of the 'no' vote, but that Chávez had no choice but to admit defeat.

''It will be a bitter pill and he will be slashing in every direction and will provoke another crisis,'' said Noriega, who often engaged in verbal duels with Chávez until leaving office in 2005.

''If he overreaches again or soon, he will be risking everything, and he knows it,'' Noriega said.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/america ... 29872.html

Hugo Chavez's Lifetime Dreams Dashed


GOT YA DICTATOR RIGHT HERE! Chavez

In a frenzied quest for a lifetime dictatorship, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called the Catholic Church "mentally retarded," accused CNN of plotting his assassination, blamed his political enemies for a national toilet paper shortage, and threatened to kill his ex-wife for publicly opposing him. And, somehow, it didn't work. Chavez narrowly lost yesterday's national referendum on proposed constitutional changes that would have significantly expanded his presidential powers and eliminated the term limits that currently prevent him from running for another term as president.

The voters of Venezuela, despite his persuasive lunacies and promises of new retirement benefits and a six-hour workday, refused to give Chavez a free hand to pursue his 21st Century Socialism agenda, which includes the construction of large utopian cities in the middle of the jungle and antagonizing the shit out of America by threatening our oil supply.

Chavez had indicated earlier that if the referendum passed, he might consider stepping down from the presidency in 2050, when he's 95 years old. But with yesterday's defeat, Chavez remains on track for retirement at the end of his current term in early 2013—at least for the time being. Earlier this morning, Chavez acknowledged in a televised speech that his power grab was "was quite profound and intense," but said the defeated proposals were "still alive" and indicated that Venezuela may still be destined for a lifelong dictator: "For me, this isn't defeat. This is for now."
http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2 ... or-now.php

So now he puts on his military costume, declares martial law and becomes a full fledged dictator. That dude is seriously demented along with the Hollywood celebs that are kissing his feet.

He'll find a way to have the election overturned.

I'm sure this isn't the end of it. He will not be stopped in his quest for supreme power. He'll just find another way to achieve his goals. Talk about the devil...

Originally Posted by Gogo

He'll find a way to have the election overturned.

If Hu-GO is anything like our stupid Congress, he'll just put the vote out every 2-weeks until it passes. He has 4 years to work on the people and bribe them. Hell if Bush bribed us maybe we would vote his way.. LOL!!

A good bribe would be that he leaves office immediately and goes to jail with Rummy, Marksman Cheney, Rice-a-Roni and Karl Land Rover then we give the money to "win" the war........ Win takes on a whole new meaning then.
Win =get something for defeating others: to get something as a prize by beating other competitors
Win = transitive verb capture something using force: to capture something such as a city using force
Win = transitive and intransitive verb achieve victory: to beat any or every opponent or enemy in a competition or fight

Hey, some GOOD news for a change! Hooray for Venezuela! I wonder if the Spanish King will congratulate the Venezuelan people?

Originally Posted by Bulldogger

So now he puts on his military costume, declares martial law and becomes a full fledged dictator. That dude is seriously demented along with the Hollywood celebs that are kissing his feet.

And the world will sit on their hands, turn their gaze to the US and ask "Well? What are you waiting for? Do something."

Let's stop for one minute and just enjoy the fact that people in a Latin American country stood up for themselves in their own country. WOW!