[NYTr] RESEND: After the vote: AP on Venezuela
 
Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 20:28:29 -0600 (CST)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 

[Lede sentence is exactly right. Chavez gracfully (and graciously)
accepted defeat... and congratulated the oppositionon their .03 percent
win. And, as he asked, would they have acted the same way if they'd
lost?  Of course it's a propaganda victory in one way.  It does
demonstrate that, as Venezuela's vice president said, if the referendum
lost they would accept the result, even if it was by only one vote.

It may be a victory in another way. For all we know, the election
result and the govt's reaction may have deprived the USA of an excuse
to move forward with a violent coup or assassination plot. 
And Hugo Chavez is still President. -NY Transfer]

AP via Yahoo - Dec 3, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071204/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/chavez_the_democrat

Loss not all bad for Venezuela's Chavez

By IAN JAMES
Associated Press Writer

In gracefully accepting his first electoral defeat, Hugo Chavez is
casting himself as a true democrat and deflecting charges of despotism
from Washington and critics at home.

But the Venezuelan president is not pulling back from his socialist
agenda, and his opponents b for now b have neither the cohesion nor the
clout to stop him.

Chavez narrowly lost a constitutional referendum Sunday that would have
enabled him to remain in power for life and drive changes throughout
Venezuelan society.

Some leaders might react to such a setback by toning down their
rhetoric and adopting a more moderate approach to woo their citizens.
Not Chavez.

"I want you all to know I'm not withdrawing a single comma of this
proposal," a sober and introspective Chavez said early Monday as he
conceded defeat. "I will continue making this proposal to the
Venezuelan people. The proposal is still alive."

Even without the constitutional overhaul he had hoped for, Chavez
already has far-reaching authority to single-handedly reshape the
government, the economy and society.

He wields special powers granted by the National Assembly this year to
enact laws by decree in areas from the economy to the justice system.

Those powers, which remain in effect until mid-2008, could enable
Chavez to restructure state institutions, raise taxes on the rich and
adapt existing legislation to share Venezuela's oil wealth more
equitably in what he calls "21st century socialism."

Though a pragmatist at times, Chavez's conflict-prone, larger-than-life
personality leaves little room for compromise, ensuring more friction
in a country now deeply polarized by his vision of a socialist utopia.

Chavez said perhaps the country was not yet ready for the revisions he
proposed.

"Did Hugo Chavez choose the wrong timing? It could be. It could be that
we aren't mature enough," Chavez told state television Monday night.
"Before searching for guilty ones, I have to say that I could have made
a mistake in my selection of a time to make the proposal."

Chavez blamed his loss on low turnout among his supporters, even as
many poor and working class Venezuelans continue to see their leader as
a savior.

"He's a man who doesn't want to see his people suffer," said Carlos
Orlando Vega, 47, who received his home from Chavez's government.

But others who previously backed Chavez were less forgiving of rampant
crime, corruption and shortages of basic supplies such as milk.

And some feared the implications of the 69 proposed constitutional
changes, which included indefinite decree power for the president to
make changes in the economy, new forms of communal property and the
ability to detain citizens without charge during states of emergency.

"I refuse to be part of a communist regime," said Cecilia Goldberger, a
56-year-old housewife.

A narrow victory could have opened Chavez to accusations of forcing
reforms on a dissenting public. Chavez acknowledged as much, saying: "I
wouldn't have wanted that Pyrrhic victory."

But the reforms mainly would have given constitutional legitimacy to
changes that Chavez is pushing through anyway. For example, one change
would have let the government occupy property it plans to expropriate
even before a court rules. Chavez's government already has done this in
some cases, seizing buildings and land.

Since the opposition boycotted 2005 elections, the National Assembly
has been filled almost entirely with Chavez-allied lawmakers.
Pro-Chavez governors and mayors have seen their fortunes rise, and the
opposition accuses Chavez's supporters of loading the courts with
biased judges.

But Sunday's victory has energized the opposition. And opponents still
has some ways of holding Chavez accountable, including private news
media and the possibility of petitioning for a recall referendum once
Chavez reaches the midpoint of his six-year term in December 2009.

With his constitutional overhaul defeated, Chavez now has to step down
in 2013. But if anything characterizes him, it is his staying power.

The 53-year-old former army lieutenant colonel told supporters before
the vote he would stay in office as long as they wanted b and perhaps
"until the last bone of my skeleton dries up."

Like most of Chavez's aims, it is a grand vision he may not easily
relinquish.

[Ian James is the AP's bureau chief in Venezuela.]

Copyright B) 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

                             ***
AP via Yahoo - Dec , 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071203/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_constitution

 Chavez: Plan may have been too ambitious

By FRANK BAJAK
Associated Press Writer

Humbled by his first electoral defeat, President Hugo Chavez said
Monday he may have been too ambitious in asking voters to let him stand
indefinitely for re-election and endorse a huge leap to a socialist
state.

"I understand and accept that the proposal I made was quite profound
and intense," he said after voters narrowly rejected the sweeping
constitutional reform by 51 percent to 49 percent.

Opposition activists were ecstatic as the results were announced
shortly after midnight b with 88 percent of the vote counted, the trend
was declared irreversible by elections council chief Tibisay Lucena.

Some shed tears. Others began chanting: "And now he's going away!"

But even a central opposition leader acknowledged Monday that it will
be a hard slog to erode Chavez's impressive power over the machinery of
state.

"We the opposition can't, nor do we want, to present a project to
compete with the government's," Leopoldo Lopez, mayor of one of
Caracas' wealthiest districts, told reporters.

Foes of the reform effort b including Roman Catholic leaders, press
freedom groups, human rights groups and prominent business leaders b
said it would have granted Chavez unchecked power and imperiled basic
rights.

There were even fears property would be confiscated if the ballot issue
won, and the Caracas Stock Exchange gained 4.3 percent on Monday.

Financial analysts said they expected the influence of private capital
to continue to erode. Chavez is "still bent on deepening state control
of the economy and centralizing power in the executive," Alberto Ramos
of Goldman Sachs wrote in a research note.

Chavez told reporters at the presidential palace that the outcome of
Sunday's balloting had taught him that "Venezuelan democracy is
maturing." His respect for the verdict, he asserted, proves he is a
true democrat.

"From this moment on, let's be calm," he proposed, asking for no more
street violence like the clashes that marred pre-vote protests. "There
is no dictatorship here."

The White House took note of Chavez's setback.

"We congratulate the people of Venezuela on their election and their
continued desire to live in freedom and democracy," National Security
Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

Chavez, who was briefly ousted in a failed 2002 coup, blamed the loss
on low turnout among the very supporters who re-elected him a year ago
with 63 percent of the vote.

Seven in ten eligible voters cast ballots then. This time it was just
56 percent.

The defeated reform package would have created new types of communal
property, let Chavez handpick local leaders under a redrawn political
map and suspend civil liberties during extended states of emergency.
Without the overhaul, 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.

Chavez's assuaging words b "don't be sad," he told supporters b didn't
stop Nelly Hernandez, a 37-year-old street vendor, from crying as she
wandered outside the presidential palace early Monday amid broken beer
bottles as government workers took apart a stage mounted earlier for a
victory fete.

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

A close ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro, Chavez has redistributed more oil
wealth than past Venezuelan leaders, and has also aided Latin American
allies including Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua that have followed
Venezuela's turn to the left.

"He is a man who feels for the people, a man who has suffered, a man
who comes from below," Carlos Orlando Vega, a 47-year-old carpenter's
assistant, said outside a polling station in a Caracas slum on Sunday.

Vega is among tens of thousands of Venezuelans who, under Chavez, have
new government-provided homes.

Chavez urged calm and restraint after his Sunday setback.

"I wouldn't have wanted that Pyrrhic victory," he said, suggesting a
small margin wouldn't have been enough of a mandate.

Tensions surged in the weeks ahead of Sunday's vote, with university
students leading protests and occasionally clashing with police and
Chavista groups.

Chavez had warned opponents against inciting violence before the vote,
and threatened to cut off oil exports to the United States if the Bush
administration interfered.

Chavez, 53, also suffered some high-profile defections by political
allies, including former defense minister Gen. Raul Baduel.

Early Monday, Baduel reminded fellow Venezuelans that Chavez still
wields special decree powers thanks to a pliant National Assembly
packed with his supporters.

"These results can't be recognized as a victory," Baduel told reporters,

Baduel, who as defense minister helped Chavez turn back the 2002
putsch, said Venezuela can only be properly united by convening a
popularly elected assembly to rewrite its constitution.

Chavez has progressively steamrollered a fractured opposition since he
was first elected in 1998, and his allies now control most elected
posts.

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.

[Associated Press writers Ian James, Edison Lopez, Fabiola Sanchez,
Jorge Rueda, Christopher Toothaker and Sandra Sierra contributed to
this report.]

Copyright B) 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 

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