One big "Por que no te callas?": Venezuela Hands Narrow Defeat to Chavez Plan
I signed off early last night and woke up this morning to this good news!Simon Romero of the NYT: Venezuela Hands Narrow Defeat to Chavez Plan
Voters in this country narrowly defeated a proposed overhaul to the constitution in a contentious referendum over granting President Hugo Chavez sweeping new powers, the Election Commission announced early Monday.Hugo is losing his constituency:
An opposition group celebrated after the referendum. Venezuela had remained on edge since polls closed Sunday afternoon and the wait for results began. More Photos >
It was the first major electoral defeat in the nine years of his presidency. Voters rejected the 69 proposed amendments 51 to 49 percent.
The political opposition erupted into celebration, shooting fireworks into the air and honking car horns, when electoral officials announced the results at 1:20 a.m. The nation had remained on edge since polls closed Sunday afternoon and the wait for results began.
The outcome is a stunning development in a country where Mr. Chávez and his supporters control nearly all of the levers of power. Almost immediately after the results were broadcast on state television, Mr. Chavez conceded defeat, describing the results as a "photo finish."
Turnout in some poor districts was unexpectedly low, indicating that even the president’s backers were willing to follow him only so far.The economy is in ruins:
Uncertainty over Mr. Chavez's reforms, meanwhile, has led to accelerating capital flight as rich Venezuelans and private companies rush to buy assets abroad denominated in dollars or euros. The currency, the bolívar, currently trades at about 6,100 to the dollar in street trading, compared with an official rate of 2,150.Hell No!...it's OFFICIAL!
Venezuela's state-controlled oil industry is also showing signs of strain, grappling with a purge of opposition management by Mr. Chavez and a retooling of the state oil company to focus on social welfare projects while aging oil fields need maintenance.
Petróleos de Venezuela, the state oil company, says it produces 3.3 million barrels a day, but OPEC places its output at just 2.4 million barrels. And private economists estimate that a third of oil production goes to meet domestic consumption, which is surging because of a subsidy that keeps gasoline prices at about seven cents a gallon.
Quico says: Venezuela rejects authoriarianism. It's a historic day. The myth of Chávez-the-invincible is no more.Gina Cobb:
NO 51%
SI 49%
Thanks to everyone for your support. The road back to something like a real democracy will be long, but at least we're on it now!
I give partial credit to Spain's King Juan Carlos for helping to tip the margin of victory to the opposition. While it probably was not his intent to rally opposition to Chavez, when King Juan Carlos said "Why don't you shut up?" to Hugo Chavez, he was heard around the world.
Chavez defeated over reform vote"Venezuela won today, democracy won today, and I am sure that this victory for the Venezuelan people will have a very important impact in the rest of Latin America," Leopoldo Lopez, opposition mayor of Caracas' Chaqua municipality, told the BBC.This is a most significant event in the history of Latin America.
Chavez is not done, but for the first time in nine years he has been defeated at the very polls he has manipulated so often.
I don't know what comes next, but for now, it's good to see him sweat:
Update:
Welcome, Instapundit readers! Please listen to last night's podcast on the Venezuelan referendum, and visit this week's Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean
GM Roper has the photoshop.
Wretchard's commenters started off the wrong foot.
¡Gloria al Bravo Pueblo!
Ed Morrisey asks,Chavez loses - but does that vindicate him?
Having expressed those limits, does this election vindicate Chavez? If the results stand, has he not shown himself bound by the electoral process and therefore no dictator? Chavez almost had a no-lose situation in this sense; if he won the referendum, he'd get even more power thrust into his hands by popular acclaim, and if he lost, he'd prove himself a democrat, at least for now. The only way he could lose is if he claimed victory in a tight election, as everyone would have assumed he manipulated it.Dan Riehl posts about the fireworks in San Felipe.
The important calculation for Chavez is not a single data point -- one election -- but the thrust of his policy over the long term. He has shut down media outlets critical of his rule. He has nationalized industries. Chavez regularly sings the praises of Fidel Castro and makes no secret of his plans to turn Venezuela into a Socialist state using Cuba as a model. If he is not in fact a dictator at the moment, thanks to the momentary intervention of the Venezuelan people, he certainly aspires to that status. And the Venezuelan people need to keep him from realizing that goal.
Chavez should worry about this, too. The blinders are off, and Venezuelans have decided to push back against the creeping dictatorship. Chavez can't bully them into compliance, and anti-Americanism has reached its limit. Does he have any other tricks in his bag?
Update 2:
Did Juan Carlos help defeat Hugo Chavez?
Venezuela votes NO
The Limits of 21st-Century Revolution
Update 3
No!
Interesting news from around the Web
Surprise; Chavez loses constitutional reform
Welcome, Weekly Standard readers! Please visit often.
Update 4
Venezuela: the loser (and the winner) is—Chavez!
Don't miss Rick Moran's excellent post, too.
Update, Tuesday December 4:
Via commenter Elmondo, On Chavez and Laughland
Who is Raul Baduel?
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Labels: Communism, elections, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela
posted by Fausta @ 6:12 AM
6 Comments:
Queue up the "Hallelujah Chorus"!!!!!
When democracies decay towards authoritarianism and dictatorship it is very, very rare that the people can take any step away from that path. In all the sweeping grants of power to Chavez, let us hope that the people of Venezuela are taking the results of that into consideration and realizing that the 'white knight' of dictatorship is worse than the decay they had seen before it.
The question of being able to hold Chavez accountable for his governing and not letting him *rule* as dictator is one that still needs to be worked out. This is a first sign that Venezuelans are now realizing the difference between governing and ruling...
I hate to be the lone cynic raining on otherwise good news, but Ed Morrisey's right: One event does not democracy make, but unfortunately, his enablers are going to point to this event as "proof" that Chavez is bound by the electoral process. Which ignores the fact that such binding was never the complaint to begin with, but rather his abuse of what power he's got, his demagoguery, and his absolutely ruinous governance of his nation. None of which are abated or restrained by any aspect of the electoral process.
Still, though, you'll see people defending him by calling him a "democratically elected leader". As if that mitigates any of his actions.
Elmondo,
You are right - and now the opposition has to get on the ball.
Great roundup of links Fausta (especially mine ;-) - I'm in agreement with Morrisey and Elmondohummus however. We now have to sit back, be careful and watch closely because I doubt that Chavez will accept the vote in the long run.
Great opinion piece from Reason:
"So one of the Huffington Post's house bloggers asks sarcastically if "dictators lose elections?" First: Many people have called Chavez a dictator, though I am not one of them. Second: Yes, sometimes dictators do lose elections (Pinochet did, the Sandinistas did). Before you too celebrate the flowering people's democracy of Venezuela, consider that Chavez's opponents braved serious threats and intimidation from government forces and ignored an onslaught of pro-regime propaganda when voting to reject the rewriting of the constitution. (In the Venezuelan version of authoritarian democracy, pro-government propaganda was ceaseless pumped into Caracas subway stations in the run-up to the referendum, while state television channels like ViVe and VTV act as sock puppets for the government.)"
"On Chavez and Laughland", Michael C. Moynihan.
It's so easy to point at cartoonish misrepresentations of what wrong is, and let real-world wrong off by comparison. As an example, and as a critique of that HuPo blogger, Chavez did not lose any election. What happened was that one of his referendums was not passed. That the question did not condem Chavez's blatantly transparent attempt to seize power shows more that it was about sideways critiques of unmentioned yet obviously identified leaders than it was about showing examples of true democracy.
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