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August 23, 2004So: fraud or not?(I'm talking about the Venezuelan referendum, of course.) I dunno. I live in Canada, nowhere near Venezuela. I wasn't there, and have no feeling for what the people in the country really think. (I'm pretty bad at figuring out my own country's thoughts too, come to think of it.) I just have a few blogs I read from the country, the news, and the belief that people don't want to live in a tyranny. But, like Kevin Jaeger says, maybe they do. One of the blogs I've followed, Caracas Chronicles, has grudgingly admitted that Chavez probably won. The other, The Devil's Excrement, is still trying to figure it out. But he does note that the promised peace that the referendum was supposed to bring has not appeared. And for that tragedy, I blame the vote's international monitors. But I really don't think anything can be done about it now. Venezuela's opposition should concentrate on trying to preserve as many democatic institutions as they can against the escalating 'Bolivarian Revolution'. I wish them luck. Posted by Bruce Gottfred at August 23, 2004 02:17 PM | TrackBackComments
I have no idea if there was fraud or not either, but if there was fraud they appear to have gotten away with it. And it's obvious that Chavez has pretty substantial support, though it's not clear whether that's 48% or 58% as he claims. Either way it looks like the descent into authoritarianism and tyranny will continue. Posted by: Kevin Jaeger at August 23, 2004 04:28 PMThanks to Carter, the world believes Chavez won clean, even though there were gaps in the monitoring. He may have, or he may not have. We'll never know. But the support the Venezuelan opposition might have received had the monitors decided not to participate because of limited access has been lost. Now the opposition has to shut up about the referendum and work on the next round of elections. Otherwise they'll be perceived as nothing but a bunch of sore losers. They've got to be better than him. Chavez is not just a risk for Venezuela. With the money he controls, he will spawn other 'Bolivarian revolution' movements in nearby countries. One of the principal reasons for the return of democracy to Latin America was the collapse of the Soviet Union and the support they gave to authoritarian regimes. But now there's a new sugar daddy to stir up the pot. Posted by: Bruce Gottfred at August 24, 2004 07:57 AMPost a comment
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