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| Hugo Chávez: Venezuela's president conceded defeat Monday after voters rejected his bid to scrap term limits. Francesco Sportorno/Reuters |
Hugo Chávez suffers a blow to his 'revolution': reforms defeated in election
Venezuela's voters reject constitutional reforms that would have ended presidential term limits and made the country a socialist state.
from the December 4, 2007 edition
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Before Sunday's referendum, he said that those planning to vote against him were "traitors" and that a defeat could put a halt to his revolution.
The 69 proposed amendments would have allowed him to personally select state and regional officials.
Reforms would have dissolved the autonomy of the Central Bank, given the president direct access to the international reserves, and – among the most controversial moves – abolished term limits for heads of state.
As the Constitution stands now, he will have to step down from his post in 2013.
In the impoverished neighborhoods that are the base of his support, and those who have most benefited from literacy programs and medical clinics paid for by oil profits, support is mixed.
"I'm sick and tired of his rhetoric and speech, there's no dialogue, no substance. I don't care what happens in other countries if it doesn't affect me," says Leticia De Luna, an older housewife standing outside a voting center in El Valle, a Chávez stronghold.
Since winning the presidential election by a wide margin in December that he said gave him the mandate to move the country more swiftly toward socialism, he has made the boldest moves in his nine-year reign, closing down a popular television station and nationalizing oil companies.
Regional fallout
Officially defining the state as socialist is what concerned many. "For me it's not important that the president can stay in power for unlimited terms, the important change is within the state and formally making it socialist," said one woman who did not want to be named and spoke in English so that she would not be understood by bystanders.
Analysts say Chávez's electoral loss is a symbolic blow to his leftist allies in Ecuador and Bolivia, who both say they are also moving to reform their constitutions for the same reasons: to give back power to those who have long be disenfranchised.
"It is a pretty strong signal to the rest of Latin America that many people are not on board with Chávez's revolution," says Ian Vasquez, the director of the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity at the Cato Institute, a Libertarian think tank based in Washington. "I think it's mostly symbolic at this point, but sometimes symbols have important effect in [countries like Ecuador and Bolivia]."
Defeat may bolster the opposition
The defeat could also empower the opposition, which has been fractured and defeated since they launched a failed coup attempt in 2002.
"The opposition has a new opportunity to present a serious and trustworthy proposal to the country," says Ricardo Sucre, a political scientist at the Central University of Venezuela. "Next year there will be elections to elect governors and mayors, this will be a good opportunity to regain influence in the country."
It's too early to say whether the opposition gain ground on Chávez as a result of the vote.
Still, analysts agree that Chávez will have to spend a bit more time listening to those not in lockstep with his agenda for radical change.
"President Chávez must understand the message that the country has sent him," says Teodoro Petkoff, director of the opposition newspaper, Tal Cual. "The message is: 'enough division,' 'enough insults,' enough aggression.'
"He must stop considering that those who aren't in agreement with him are lackeys of the 'empire', putchists, worms, or serpents," says Mr. Petkoff. "Here we're all Venezuelans."
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