[lbo-talk] NYT: Chavez loses, 51% to 49%; Chavez does concede on TV

John Thornton jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net
Mon Dec 3 16:12:09 PST 2007


Dennis Claxton wrote:
>> It was the most controversal-its what caused Chavez's allies and
>> other parts of the left to break with him.
>>
>
>
> Apparently it was abstainers that made the difference. What they
> were thinking is a lot more complicated than the sloppy
> characterization of this being about Chavez "wanting to retain office
> indefinitely."

In other words they don't necessarily have a problem with Chavez serving another term but they want to know why it would benefit them to change the constitution. They also want to know how the economic reforms to socialism are to be defined. Apparently the people of Venezuela know more about their own referendum and how to handle their electoral process than a bunch of Americans who are mindlessly cheering the defeat of Chavez as "president for life". Something that was never on the referendum anyway. This totally destroys the idea that the Venezuelan reformers are enthralled with some sort of personality cult. They are thoughtful and know what they want. They are not ignorant people being lead about by a megalomaniac as their critics, both in the U.S. and Venezuela, like to claim.

John Thornton



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