[NYTr] NY Times, Take Two: Quick Rewrite by Romero to Explain how "Dictator" Lost Referendum

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

THE NEW YORK SLIMES, TAKE TWO

[Quick Rewrite Desk fixes up the Romero report of an hour earlier, to
reconcile the "dictatorial" Chavez government which controls everything
with the fact that the Constitutional Reforms referendum was defeated by
a razor-think margin. "NO" vote total (with a high turnout) is listed
as  here as 50.7 percent. As Chavez said, a "photo-finish."  See
Romero's earlier report as the last of 3 here:

Venez: Constitutional Referendum Defeated in Close Vote  - Dec 3, 2007
http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20071203/072459.html



The New York Times - Dec 3, 2007 01:20 a.m.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/world/americas/03venezuela.html

Caption for Reuters photo: 
"Supporters of an opposition group celebrate after winning in Caracas
December 2, 2007. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez lost a tight vote
on Sunday in a referendum on giving him new powers and scrapping term
limits on his left-wing rule."

Venezuela Hands Narrow Defeat to Chávez Plan

By SIMON ROMERO

CARACAS, Venezuela, Monday, Dec. 3 — Voters in this country narrowly
defeated a proposed overhaul to the constitution in a contentious
referendum over granting President Hugo Chávez sweeping new powers, the
Election Commission announced early Monday.

It was the first major electoral defeat in the nine years of his
presidency. Voters rejected the 69 proposed amendments 51 to 49 percent.

The political opposition erupted into celebration, shooting fireworks
into the air and honking car horns, when electoral officials announced
the results at 1:20 a.m. The nation had remained on edge since polls
closed Sunday afternoon and the wait for results began.

The outcome is a stunning development in a country where Mr. Chávez and
his supporters control nearly all of the levers of power. Almost
immediately after the results were broadcast on state television, Mr.
Chávez conceded defeat, describing the results as a “photo finish.”

“I congratulate my adversaries for this victory,” he said. “For now, we
could not do it.”

Opposition leaders were ecstatic. “Tonight, Venezuela has won,” said
Manuel Rosales, governor of Zulia State and the opposition’s candidate
in presidential elections last year.

In recent weeks, members of previously splintered opposition movements
joined disillusioned Chávez supporters in an attempt to defeat the
referendum on constitutional changes. The plan would abolish term
limits, allow Mr. Chávez to declare states of emergency for unlimited
periods and increase the state’s role in the economy, among other
measures.

The defeat slows Mr. Chávez’s socialist-inspired transformation of the
country. Venezuela, once a staunch ally of the United States, has
become a leading opponent of the Bush administration’s policies in the
developing world. It has also taken the most profound leftward turn of
any large Latin American nation in decades.

The referendum followed several weeks of street protests and frenetic
campaigning over the amendments to the Constitution proposed by Mr.
Chávez and his supporters. It caps a year of bold moves by the
president, who forged a single Socialist party among his followers,
forced a television network critical of the government off the public
airwaves, and nationalized oil, telephone and electricity companies.

In Caracas on Sunday, turnout in poorer neighborhoods, where support
for Mr. Chávez is strong, indicated that the referendum was drawing a
mixed response. Lines were long in some areas and nonexistent in others.

“The whole proposal is marvelous,” said Francis Veracierta, 52, a
treasurer at a communal council here, one of thousands of local
governing entities loyal to Mr. Chávez that he created this year. After
awakening to predawn fireworks, she said she joined a line at 6 a.m. to
vote at a school in Petare, an area of sprawling hillside slums here.

“The power is for us in the community,” said Ms. Veracierta, wearing a
red shirt, red cap and belt with Che Guevara’s face on it. She said she
credited Mr. Chávez’s government for giving her a $3,800 loan to start
a small clothing business.

Some of Mr. Chávez’s populist proposals, including an increase in
social security benefits for some workers, have been praised even by
his critics.

Turnout in some poor districts was unexpectedly low, indicating that
even the president’s backers were willing to follow him only so far.
Some Chávez supporters expressed concern that if they voted against the
measures they might be retaliated against. Turnout of registed voters
was just 56 percent.

There was no line in front of the voting center at the Cecilio Acosta
school in Petare on Sunday morning, as a few dozen people who had
already voted milled about the street. Some volunteers working the
voting machines sat idle, waiting for more voters to arrive. Other
voting centers in Petare had lines outside, but they were less than
half a block long.

“I’m impressed by the lack of voters,” said Ninoska González, 37, who
sells cigarettes on the street. “This was full last year.” She
described herself as a “Chavista” who voted for the president in last
year’s presidential elections, but said she voted against his proposed
changes on Sunday.

“I don’t agree with some articles,” Ms. González said. Asked about the
measure to pay social security benefits to workers in the informal
economy like her, she said, “That’s a lie.”

Confusion persisted Sunday over the amendments, with a major complaint
among the president’s supporters and critics that they had too little
time to study the proposals.

Unlike in past votes here, this time the government did not invite
observers from the Organization of American States or the European
Union, opening itself to potential claims of fraud.

The voting seemed to unfold largely without irregularities, though
there were isolated reports of fraud and violence in parts of the
country. Recounts are allowed under Venezuelan law, but would have to
be approved by the Supreme Court, which is controlled by Mr. Chávez’s
supporters.

In recent weeks, Mr. Chávez has adopted an increasingly confrontational
tone with critics abroad, who have been multiplying even in friendly
countries with moderate leftist governments like Brazil and Chile.

In the days before the referendum, Mr. Chávez recalled his ambassador
from Colombia and threatened to nationalize the Venezuelan operations
of Spanish banks after Spain’s king told him to shut up during a
meeting. Mr. Chávez said he would cut off oil exports to the United
States in the event of American interference in the vote.

The United States remains the largest buyer of Venezuela’s oil, despite
deteriorating political ties, but that long commercial relationship is
starting to change as Mr. Chávez increases exports of oil to China and
other countries while gradually selling off the oil refineries owned by
Venezuela’s government in the United States.

Venezuela’s political opposition, normally divided among several small
political parties, found common cause in calling on its members to vote
against the amendments. An increasingly defiant student movement also
protested here and in other large interior cities against the proposed
charter.

In a move that alarmed the opposition, electoral officials over the
weekend revoked the observer credentials of Jorge Quiroga, a former
president of Bolivia and an outspoken critic of Mr. Chávez. Mr. Quiroga
accused security forces here of following him after his arrival in
Caracas. “They’ve taken my credential but not my tongue,” Mr. Quiroga
said.

Mr. Chávez, whose followers already control many powerful institutions
— the National Assembly, the federal bureaucracy, the national oil
company, the Supreme Court and all but a handful of state governments —
relied on an unrivaled political machine to gather support for the
measures.

Uncertainty over Mr. Chávez’s reforms, meanwhile, has led to
accelerating capital flight as rich Venezuelans and private companies
rush to buy assets abroad denominated in dollars or euros. The
currency, the bolívar, currently trades at about 6,100 to the dollar in
street trading, compared with an official rate of 2,150.

Venezuela’s state-controlled oil industry is also showing signs of
strain, grappling with a purge of opposition management by Mr. Chávez
and a retooling of the state oil company to focus on social welfare
projects while aging oil fields need maintenance.

Petróleos de Venezuela, the state oil company, says it produces 3.3
million barrels a day, but OPEC places its output at just 2.4 million
barrels. And private economists estimate that a third of oil production
goes to meet domestic consumption, which is surging because of a
subsidy that keeps gasoline prices at about seven cents a gallon.

Still, Mr. Chávez already has unprecedented discretionary control over
Venezuela’s oil revenues, valued at more than $60 billion a year.
“Because of its oil, Venezuela has global reach in OPEC and the rest of
Latin America,” said Kenneth R. Maxwell, a professor of Latin American
history at Harvard University.

Jens Erik Gould contributed reporting.