Political Crossfire Forums

Venezuela's Hugo Chávez has once again defied his doubters by winning a new term of office in the presidential election after what had been billed as the closest race of his political life.

To the euphoria of supporters in and around his campaign headquarters, the National Electoral Council announced on Sunday the president had secured 54.4% of the votes, while his rival Capriles was behind with 44.9%.

Underlining the intense interest in the campaign, the turnout among the 19 million registered voters was a record 80.4%.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oc ... n-election

I'm surprised there hasn't been a thread on this so far. Well, this isn't going to please the US or corporate interests, but that's democracy for you. How will this affect US-Venezualan relations?

Nobody expects him to lose. He's rigged it so that he can be reelected in perpetuity.

He'll leave office when he's good and ready.

I didn't say the election was rigged, nor did I say he was a dictator. I was pointing out that Chavez got that resolution through that allows him to be reelected indefinitely.

Despite your offensive assumptions, I have no interest in propaganda of any sort.

If he actually loses an election one day, then we'll know the score. Truly, I cannot fathom why anyone would stick up for that guy.

Chavez is a thug and a bully.. Nothing more..

The sooner he's gone the better it will be for Venezuela.

the socialists of central and south america are a sham and nothing but a black mark on the internationale. chavez being one of the worst.

Chavez is just a boogeyman of the United States secret service, media, and corporations. His nationalization stance pisses Western business off, but he's democratically elected and the conservative arm of his opposition has already failed to illegally steal power away so it's just routine 'dictator' crap. He's no worse than many South American leaders. In fact I'd say he's better than about 75% of them because most of the programs he's supported (worker cooperatives, minimum wage, labor unions) equip the poor with political power. Colombian and Mexican leadership is definitely worse, but they let us pat their heads so we don't complain.