Venezuela:
A Resounding Defeat for the Elite

The papers appraise Chavez's victory in the presidential recall vote 

The Guardian (UK) 18aug04 

Juan Gonzalez, Daily News, New York, August 16

"Hugo Chavez, the south-of-the-border president the Bush White House most despises these days, didn't just survive Latin America's 
first-ever recall referendum — he steamrolled his way to a stunning landslide victory. It was a resounding defeat for the Venezuelan 
upper-class elite.

"His triumph was an equally embarrassing defeat for the Bush administration. They have repeatedly claimed to other nations that the 
Venezuelan leader is a dictator in the making. 

The Chavez victory margin of more than a million votes should make clear that he has enormous support among Venezuela's poor, and they 
are the vast majority of the population. We'll see now if the Bush people only accept democratic election results where their guy 
wins."

 

Guillermo García Ponce, La Nación, Venezuela, August 17

"The Venezuelan people have expressed their indisputable, democratic and peaceful will in a clear and convincing way. 

"In a massive demonstration of profound civic conviction, millions of Venezuelans turned up to decide if Mr Chavez's mandate would or 
would not be revoked. 

"The results have been open and conclusive. The majority decided in favour of keeping Mr Chavez. 

"Mr Chavez called on the opposition for peace and reconciliation but [they] have rejected the president's offer. 

"They do not want peace nor reconciliation, not just because they lack democratic spirit but because Washington does not accept 
Venezuela's verdict of sovereignty."

· Guillermo García Ponce is a senior adviser to Hugo Chavez 

 

Francisco Abad, El Norte, Venezuela, August 17

"The figures that have emerged bear no relation to what happened in the voting process and will no doubt put Mr Chavez back in charge. 

"The way the national elections council manipulated the referendum, before, during and after, leaves us without a single doubt that we 
have witnessed a fraudulent operation that was well thought-out and carried out without the slightest hint of a blush and in which the 
machiavellian maxim dictated that the end justified the means. 

"It is incredible that a team of people who are part of the autonomous power of the state dare to give the whole country a slap in the 
face, jeopardising their dignity and compromising the stability and peace of the republic."

 

Toronto Star, Editorial, August 17

"The country's conservative elite is loath to accept the result. This is a repudiation of democracy, pure and simple. How many times 
must Mr Chavez prove he has the right to serve out his term, which runs through 2006? How much turmoil must Venezuelans be put through 
before the majority's will can prevail?.

"Mr Chavez is no saint. But he has pumped much of Venezuela's $24bn [£13bn] annual oil wealth into his 'revolution for the poor'. 
Democracy has only recently taken root in much of Latin America. It is to be cherished, not subverted. If Mr Chavez's critics want to 
press for his ouster, they should do so at the polls rather than seek to destabilise a popular elected government. That could plunge 
Venezuela back into the revolutionary turmoil that gripped much of the region a few decades ago, and which his critics so fear."

 

Bernd Pickert, Die Tageszeitung, Germany, August 17

"Venezuela has decided: Mr Chavez can remain in office. The points about him that his critics object to — personality cult, inability 
to form alliances, polarisation — remain. But the constitution drawn up under him is that of a democracy, not a dictatorship, which 
the opposition thinks Venezuela still is. If Mr Chavez sticks to this constitution in the future and is able to rally majorities 
around him then he can and must continue to govern, however incomprehensible this thought may appear to the opposition."

 

San Francisco Chronicle, Editorial, August 17

"Mr Chavez may have survived a recall. But he has miles to go to reknit his fractured and globally important country. The former 
president Jimmy Carter and the Organisation of American States, acting as election monitors, both blessed the preliminary vote counts 
as legitimate, despite claims of fraud from anti-Chavez forces. 

"Political changes in Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia have all brought new leaders riding a wave of anti-free-market feeling. Mr Chavez 
is buoyed by the same demand for change. Unlike the other leaders, he must curb the invective and divisiveness and go to work. 
Venezuela, more than many of its neighbours, has the ability to do much better."

 

Antonio Gala, El Mundo, Spain, August 17

"The fact that there was a large turnout in Mr Chavez's referendum does not guarantee anything. If the opposition had won, the 
majority would have ended up ditching their sheep's clothing. South America is not ready to live with democracy. This is a difficult 
thing to learn and the only way to teach it is through practice. The illusion of politics, any politics, must diminish each day. The 
real question facing all South American countries is about the division of wealth."

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,12716,1285136,00.html 27aug04