Venezuela's Chavez loses "president-for-life" vote

This is great to hear that after all the propaganda on the "Si" campaign, he lost in the bid for "president for life". This stance shows that at the 11th hour ANYTHING can happen.

Good for the citizens of Venezuela!!

sweet news :) congratulations venezuelans and keep fighting. no one deserves to live humiliated in grotesque dictatorship.

Good for Venezuela.

In the US, there are absolutely zero national referendums. That is gross.

If Venezulea was a "grotesque dictatorship" then there wouldn't have been a referendum.

The Reuters article reproduced here is is very much slanted against Chavez. It doesn't make it clear that this was a referendum on 69 proposed amendments to the constitution.

The headline is misleading as it wasn't a vote on whether or not Chavez would be President for life. It simply proposed the removal of the term limit restriction. He would still have to have been continuously re-elected.

Thank God. Hopefully now he'll take King Juan Carlos' words and "shut up".

Astonishing to see so many here simply swallowing the propaganda line presnted to them in the US media. Many countries do not have time limits - in the US, there were no time limits in FDR's time, for example, which was why the Right pushed for them. Chavez has won more electins and referendums since 1998 than all the Americas combined, usually handsomnely, unlike the farcical "elections" in the US where you can lose but still win aka Bush. The other proposals in the referendum ranged from things like giving more power to local popular councils, and bringing in a 6 hour work day. Some may have been unrealistic, and it was no doubt a mistake to run 69 all together at once, but the intention was good. Calling Chavez a "dictator" is so ridiculous, it would mae virtually every other ruler on earth a fascist tyrant by comparison. As for the loss, it was largely abstention - the anti-Chavez camp gained almost zero percent extra compared to previous results, but a large section which has always voted for Chavez - and no doubt still will - simply abstained rather than vote against, as they were not convinced, but not hostile. The result was actually very close, like 51-49%. Big deal. And I wonder what kind of "dictator" simply accepts the 'no' referendum result as a matter of course. Frm the persectives of some of the posters here attacking Chavez, I guess some would have preferred the US-backed Pinochet stye, others the Milosevic style. You can have them.

This is great to hear that after all the propaganda on the "Si" campaign, he lost in the bid for "president for life". This stance shows that at the 11th hour ANYTHING can happen.

Good for the citizens of Venezuela!!

sweet news :) congratulations venezuelans and keep fighting. no one deserves to live humiliated in grotesque dictatorship.

If Venezulea was a "grotesque dictatorship" then there wouldn't have been a referendum.

The Reuters article reproduced here is is very much slanted against Chavez. It doesn't make it clear that this was a referendum on 69 proposed amendments to the constitution.

The headline is misleading as it wasn't a vote on whether or not Chavez would be President for life. It simply proposed the removal of the term limit restriction. He would still have to have been continuously re-elected.

Thank God. Hopefully now he'll take King Juan Carlos' words and "shut up".

Good for Venezuela.

In the US, there are absolutely zero national referendums. That is gross.

Astonishing to see so many here simply swallowing the propaganda line presnted to them in the US media. Many countries do not have time limits - in the US, there were no time limits in FDR's time, for example, which was why the Right pushed for them. Chavez has won more electins and referendums since 1998 than all the Americas combined, usually handsomnely, unlike the farcical "elections" in the US where you can lose but still win aka Bush. The other proposals in the referendum ranged from things like giving more power to local popular councils, and bringing in a 6 hour work day. Some may have been unrealistic, and it was no doubt a mistake to run 69 all together at once, but the intention was good. Calling Chavez a "dictator" is so ridiculous, it would mae virtually every other ruler on earth a fascist tyrant by comparison. As for the loss, it was largely abstention - the anti-Chavez camp gained almost zero percent extra compared to previous results, but a large section which has always voted for Chavez - and no doubt still will - simply abstained rather than vote against, as they were not convinced, but not hostile. The result was actually very close, like 51-49%. Big deal. And I wonder what kind of "dictator" simply accepts the 'no' referendum result as a matter of course. Frm the persectives of some of the posters here attacking Chavez, I guess some would have preferred the US-backed Pinochet stye, others the Milosevic style. You can have them.