'Invincible' Chavez Deserted By Many Supporters In Venezuelan Elections

From the hardened slums of this city to some of Venezuela's most populous and economically important states, many of President Hugo Chávez's supporters deserted him in regional elections, showing it is possible to challenge him in areas where he was once thought invincible.

The outcome of Sunday's vote was the second blow dealt to the president in a year, after voters rejected last December his plan to alter the Constitution to give himself more power. Although it was unclear whether the results would slow his Socialist-inspired revolution or check his power, they could complicate his ambitions to amend the Constitution to allow him to run again.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[papapj]

Chavez is an idealist, not a politician.

Hos heart is in the right place, but he needs to delegate the political responsibilities to those who can handle it, otherwise he runs the risk of creating just anoither ruling oligarchy, which he fought so vehemently against....

[tidalfist]

" Though Mr. Chávez"s allies won 17 of the 22 states in Sunday"s vote, his opponents did well in some poor urban areas, and in states like Zulia .... "

G*ddammed Biased Lying Media. Stupid pampered, have-nots hateing weasels.

Their own darn words described a clear, unequivocal VICTORY. A " victory " that, I suppose, that " will not be televised ".....S c r e w t h e m.

[elcojonu]

There's nobody in Venezuela yet that can match Chavez ' Cojon por Cojon '; he's a Cojonu.
He'll be there for awhile if he doesn't get clipped.
We shall see if he's learned well the lessons from his Godfather Fidel.

[markinaz]

Well, that's what happens when you try to buy your peoples' love. Especially when you start to run out of money. LOL.

[PaulEscobar]

Actually, Venezuela has some of the largest currency reserves in all of Latin America.
That gives them a huge cushion to land on.

But more importantly...their budgets have always assumed low oil prices.
So even when oil was at $100 barrell, the government assumed oil was at $30-$70 barrell.

Oil is coming down...to their budgets level.

They're not afraid to make cuts.
But the first cuts won't be domestic...they'll be foreign.

So don't cry for Venezuela.
It'll be in better shape than alot of its neighbours.

[lavici]

pablo: the 2009 budget is calculated @ exactly $60 a barrel, oil is @ $50 as I write.

chavez lost petare, the largest poor slum in caracas + all the other 4 municipalities of the capital except libertador by a few votes, carabobo= industries, zulia= oil, táchira= border agricultural state, nva. esparta=tourist state

barinas= won by fraud by his brother just like W. with the florida connection, by the 97 records of registered ballots "lost" with the 15% difference

he DID go with to election with a coalition = ppt+ pcv+ psuv

we have the HIGHEST inflation rate of the continent @ $36 %

so, please DO cry for venezuela

so...i'm guessing by your posts that you love chavez, i hope you live here in caracas as simón romero does, and that you speak from our very poor quality of life, or else why do think he lost?

[tidalfist]

Like America, I'd imagine.
If your flawed, bourgeoisie logic is to be believed.

[CC1]

He's finding out the hard way, as Bush has, that no leader is invincible.

[Carolab]

This is U.S. media propaganda on Chavez, as USUAL.

If you'd like to read some TRUTH about Hugo Chavez, I invite you to read Sean Penn's elegant and incisive report in The Nation:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081215/penn?rel=hp_picks

[CarlosQC]

My first comment, and its not only to congratulate Venezuelans for its democracy, but to make sure Americans who read this understand: not because Hugo Chavez is a socialist makes him an enemy of the US, where the Bush administration is socialist for the rich (bailouts) and capitalist for the poor (human exploitation at its best).

Check this website where you can see how big was the victory of Chavez' PSUV:

http://www.embavenez-us.org/regionales2008/index_english.php

[lavici]

you are reading the government's web site what do you want it to say?it'ds like watching fox news and expecting them to hail obama´s winning... really.

[dlbdpb]

No one here really knows what goes on there, we only here what we are told by the media who is told what to say by our government. So maybe we should hear both sides before believing anything. We have been told many many lies thus far about many many things, so I'll keep my opinion to myself until I hear the other side.

[indyleftist]

Its pathetic the propaganda we are seeing here
According to the article "Mr. Chávez"s allies won 17 of the 22 states in Sunday"s vote"
That's means he didn't lose

I don't understand why so many people are against democracy in South America

[lavici]

democracy or autocracy? again i ask,do you live here?

[Carolab]

It certainly is. Read Sean Penn's TRUTHFUL report on Chavez in The Nation (brand new):

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081215/penn?rel=hp_picks

[realityisbetter]

All put together, Chavez supporters took 52.5% of the vote to 41% (by definition a landslide). They won 17 of 23 elections. They hold all the most populace and economically important areas of the country.

This is one of the tiny few articles in the US press that actually talked about it as some kind of a defeat. Regardless of what you think of Chavez, this is horrible, fantasy journalism.

[lavici]

they did not win the economically mportant part of the country startin by the capital which they lost.

[PaulEscobar]

The Associated Press:
"Chavez's gubernatorial candidates together won 52.5 percent of the popular vote on Sunday, while their leading opponents came away with 41.1 percentt (according to preliminary tallies with more than 95 percent of ballots counted)."

Keeping in mind that:
1) Chavez's new party went alone into this election, without a coalition.
2) The opposition didn't boycott like the last time.

Defeating his opponents by 10% certainly constitutes a LANDSLIDE for Chavez.
Contrary to the biased reporting of Simon Romero.

[lavici]

hello paul? 8.3 million vs. 8.3 million when you have all the power, money and partisan machine where is the landslide?

[spinns17]

change,world wide . .yes we can

[LightSword]

This guy is one example of what's wrong with the world!!!

[lavici]

The electoral council seats are 4 to 1, his own minions; so following instructions last night, the 'Consejo Nacional Electoral', again, made us wait more than three hours, making the whole country unnecessarily nervous & filled with trepidation and suspense about the final outcome based on the results everyone knew already (by checking through the web the exit polls given by some Venezuelan sister radio stations in the US) because unconstitutionally, he forbade the publication of any type of polls, until HE decided( I guess "Goliath" needed time to digest this second slap on the face by small unarmed "David") under all kinds of menaces, of closing down any TV station or media, that dared contravene his orders. So can you imagine election night like sitting ducks in the dark? Sounds very democratic? Can you imagine W. giving the same orders for election night on the 4th of November? I wonder what would the North American citizens' reactions be to a similar mandate? I wonder specially about the media's one would be? for us Venezuelans, should it be ok since we are just an exotic banana republic, blessed with a colorful "democratic" autocrat of a president?
Just an hour ago we have reports that his brother Adán commited fraud to win the governor post by five points at the now Dinastylike state of his birth in Barinas. What will happen? Just guess...remember Florida. So what's good for the big US goose, should also be good for the small Venezuelan gander.

[Tyger79]

are those "reports" you are getting from the same media outlets that openly encouraged the attempted coup against chavez about 7 years back? i'm just trying to see how reputable the source is.

[bmwracer]

Is he crying or did he get hit in the head with a bottle?

[lavici]

(lol) both: crying 'cause he was "hit "by the opposition's win. ;)
i'm posting part of an article that sums the situation:
if you bear with me:
All the executive, legislative and judicial institutions are in his fist. He disqualified almost 400 front runners with an ample margin to win the regional posts, by using a illegitimate administrative proceeding without even pressing formal charges or, sending any of them to trial, disregarding all the constitutional laws.
I"ll ask you to please visualize W. ordering any equivalent US high official to forbid Obama from running as a presidential candidate, to get him out of the way, because he had committed a mysterious "serious administrative crime" --for which he was never even investigated or charged-- to barr him from public office for 16 years? I"d happen in a blue moon.

[OliverTwist]

A review of author Simon Romero's his past work suggests he is more political agent and propagandist than journalist.

Too bad.

[jonjon66]

A dictador wouldn't allow an election.

[lavici]

hellllooooooo? pablo escobar etc i'd like to know how many of you actually live in venezuela?
- fujimori held elections and pinochet held elections and they were both dictators
- chavez needs 'legitimacy' thru elections so the armed forces will accept his desire to be president for life. ( 10 years and counting)
- i´ll do a simple math for you:
we have 17 million voters.
chavez won 8.3 million voters in 17 states, mostly rural areas. in 2004 he won in 21 out of 23.
the opposition won 8.3 million voters in 5 states + the metropolitan county, because they are the most populated urban areas with business, finance, arts, culture and universities are.
it´s like saying that the G.O.P was the real winner in the november US elections because the US map has bigger/more red states, than blue.
same same... and by the way the NYTimes article is right on the dot in everything. for one thing simón romero lives here. lavici