Chavez's "Reforms" Defeated

Just crossing the wires now.

President Hugo Chavez suffered a stinging defeat in a vote on constitutional changes that would have let him run for re-election indefinitely, the chief of National Electoral Council said Monday.

Voters defeated the sweeping measures by a vote of 51 percent to 49 percent, Tibisay Lucena said.

Fidel would have never made this type of amateur mistake. Thankfully, Hugo doesn't seem that bright.

There’s a little more detail now. Apparently Chavez has conceded defeat but he’s still President until 2012. It looks like this isn’t the last time Venezuelans are going to have go toe to toe with this Castro wannabe.

"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.

…"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."

posted by DrewM. at 01:32 AM

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