From the Miami Herald:
Chavez himself has made a point of presenting the vote as one more chapter in the battle against ''the empire.'' 'Anyone who votes `No' is voting for George W. Bush,'' Chavez shouted to a sea of supporters Friday.And just like every Dubya election, it was a nail-biter:
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.This election reminds me of the 1990 presidential election in Nicaragua when Violeta Chamorro defeated Castro's buddy Daniel Ortega. A New York Times story at the time revealed that when Nicaraguans were polled, they overwhelmingly voice their support for the Communist president...unless the pollster was holding a blue-and-white pencil symbolic of Chamorro's UNO Party. Similarly, polls were indicating a tight vote in Venezuela but I was cautiously optimistic that the "silent majority" would come out to vote against dictatorship.
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.
Extra - Lots of Venezuela info on Fausta's blog.
4 comments:
I'll bet there is a nice portion of eh Venezuelan electorate who, after living under that filthy dictator, who think that voting for Bush isn't such a bad idea.
Hmm, looks like GWB reprised 2006 where he also got 51-49.
Poor Hugo. Just a couple more votes, and he would have had a historic mandate.
George W. Bush wins another election
Way to go. It's his second win in 12 years!
Of course, he holds an unsurmountable lead in the race for "worst President in American history."
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