| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"NotBush2004" |
| Date: |
16 Aug 2004 11:18:53 PM |
| Object: |
What does S. America think of Bush's policies? |
Congratulations Venezuela and President Chavez!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 17, 2004
Venezuela Votes by Large Margin to Retain Chávez
By JUAN FORERO
CARACAS, Venezuela, Aug. 16 - Venezuelans voted overwhelmingly to keep
President Hugo Chávez in power, electoral authorities and international
monitors said Monday. But a strident opposition movement refused to accept
the results of the recall referendum, raising prospects for more turmoil in
Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.
Mr. Chávez, a pugnacious leftist populist who has already survived four
national strikes and a brief coup, won handily after 8.5 million of
Venezuela's 14 million registered voters swarmed polling stations in voting
that began at 6 a.m. Sunday and ended well past midnight.
"The Venezuelan people have spoken, and the people's voice is the voice of
God!" said Mr. Chávez, holding a microphone and standing in a balcony of the
Miraflores presidential palace in a predawn address.
His victory eased world oil prices, which had been buffeted by concerns that
a successful recall, and the ensuing violence that some expected, could
disrupt production at the state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela.
With 95 percent of ballots counted, Francisco Carrasquero, the president of
the National Electoral Council, announced early Monday that Mr. Chávez had
the backing of 58 percent of the voters, against 42 percent for the
opposition. Mr. Chávez drew nearly 5 million votes, while the opposition
collected about 3.6 million.
As of Monday night, opposition leaders had not backed off from their charges
that a "gigantic fraud" had occurred. Anti-government protesters threw
stones at a group of pro-government demonstrators, who witnesses said pulled
out guns and fired shots that killed a 62-year-old woman and wounded several
others.
But the Organization of American States and the Carter Center of Atlanta -
monitors invited by the government and the opposition to validate the
outcome - said the results were legitimate.
"There is a clear difference in favor of the government of President
Chávez," former President Jimmy Carter, who heads the Carter Center, said at
a joint news conference with César Gaviria, secretary general of the O.A.S.
and a former president of Colombia.
The two men explained that the "quick counts" their organizations had
conducted at various polling stations coincided with the outcome released by
the Electoral Council. The quick counts, used in elections around the world,
tally totals from various polling sites, have a margin of error of 1 percent
and are more accurate than surveys of voters leaving the polls.
"We have found the information from the quick count was almost exactly the
same as that presented" by the electoral authorities, said Mr. Carter, 79,
whose organization has monitored elections in 51 counties. He added that
"all Venezuelans should accept the results of the C.N.E.," the electoral
body, "unless there is tangible proof that the reports are incorrect."
Shortly after the polls closed at midnight, opposition leaders were quick to
predict victory. So when the computerized voting system used in the election
tabulated the results, showing that the government had clearly won, the two
of five electoral board members who side with the opposition were stunned,
according to diplomats who were in the room.
Opposition leaders who met with Mr. Carter and Mr. Gaviria were further
surprised when the monitors told them that they believed that the count was
just, and that their own samples confirmed the outcome.
Mr. Carter, in a meeting with five American reporters Monday afternoon, said
two or three of the opposition leaders in the two-hour meeting became
"extremely irate."
"Their faces were white, and they were very condemnatory of our lack of
objectivity and fairness," Mr. Carter said. Others, like the opposition's
best-known leader, Enrique Mendoza, were clearly astonished and remained
quiet, he said.
Soon after, Henry Ramos, a spokesman for the Democratic Coordinator, the
umbrella of 27 opposition political parties, announced, "We categorically
reject the results."
"They have perpetrated a gigantic fraud against the will of the people," he
said.
Recent polls had indicated that Mr. Chávez would squeak to victory, though
political analysts had hesitated to predict the outcome, saying the polls'
results were too close to call. As it turned out, Mr. Chávez's fervent
supporters - mainly people from the poor barrios who believe he is the first
president to speak for them - voted overwhelmingly in his favor.
"The opposition has to recognize Chávez is our leader, that he has virtues,"
said Guadeth Peńa, 35, who turned out to celebrate Monday at the
presidential palace. "Venezuela has changed. The people are not ignorant
like the opposition thinks. We are no longer blind. We will not longer be
fooled."
Mr. Carter, in his meeting with the American reporters, expressed concern
that the leaders of the Democratic Coordinator had not accepted the results
and were instead insisting that the vote was fraudulent, citing surveys of
voters at the polls that the opposition organizations had conducted.
Those polls, Mr. Carter said, "are quite unreliable," and have a high chance
of being biased. "I wish they would accept the results," he said.
Mr. Carter and Mr. Gaviria said that there could be some discrepancies in
the final tally, but that fraud was all but impossible. They said they would
look into fraud claims, if proof were presented.
Mr. Chávez, in his early morning address after it was clear he had won, was
relatively conciliatory toward the opposition, which in the past he has
called "squalid ones" and a "rancid oligarchy."
"This is a victory for the opposition," he said. "They defeated violence,
coup-mongering and fascism. I hope they accept this as a victory and not as
a defeat."
Mr. Carter said he had talked to Mr. Chávez about the need to patch together
a relationship with the opposition as well as scaling back his verbal
outbursts against the Bush administration.
Mr. Chávez has declared himself at odds with nearly all facets of American
policy in Latin America, like its military aid to neighboring Colombia and
efforts to expand free trade agreements across the region. Although he has
said repeatedly that Venezuela will continue providing oil to the United
States, in recent months he had stepped up attacks on President Bush, whom
he accused of backing the opposition.
The new lease on power of Mr. Chávez, a former army paratrooper and coup
plotter, is a pivotal event in a country that has been roiled by protests
since he first won election in 1998 promising to overturn the old social
order, ease life for the poor and punish the corrupt elite the president's
followers said plundered this country. But his leftist policies and sharp
attacks on his political opponents have alienated Venezuelans who contend
Mr. Chávez is taking Venezuela toward tyranny and ruin.
The results of the referendum mean that Mr. Chávez will finish the two years
left of his term, which began with his re-election in 2000. His government
pledged that it would continue with its so-called Bolivarian revolution,
named for the hero of the country's independence wars, Simón Bolívar,
purging elites from institutions and funneling hundreds of millions of
dollars into health and social programs.
Buoyed by high oil prices that have left Venezuela awash in cash this year,
Mr. Chávez's government worked for victory by embarking on a $1.7 billion
social spending program. It also spent handsomely on a campaign that
frightened many Venezuelans into believing that a yes vote to recall Mr.
Chávez would be a vote for American imperialism and the corrupt political
parties that ruled this country in the past.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/17/international/americas/17venezuela.html?pagewanted=print&position=
--
They Knew...
Despite the whitewash, we now know that the Bush administration was warned
before the war that its Iraq claims were weak
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/they_knew_0802/
.
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| User: "Werner Hetzner" |
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| Title: Re: What does S. America think of Bush's policies? |
17 Aug 2004 07:30:21 AM |
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NotBush2004 wrote:
Congratulations Venezuela and President Chavez!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 17, 2004
Venezuela Votes by Large Margin to Retain Chávez
By JUAN FORERO
CARACAS, Venezuela, Aug. 16 - Venezuelans voted overwhelmingly to keep
President Hugo Chávez in power, electoral authorities and international
monitors said Monday. But a strident opposition movement refused to accept
the results of the recall referendum, raising prospects for more turmoil in
Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.
Mr. Chávez, a pugnacious leftist populist who has already survived four
national strikes and a brief coup, won handily after 8.5 million of
Venezuela's 14 million registered voters swarmed polling stations in voting
that began at 6 a.m. Sunday and ended well past midnight.
"The Venezuelan people have spoken, and the people's voice is the voice of
God!" said Mr. Chávez, holding a microphone and standing in a balcony of the
Miraflores presidential palace in a predawn address....
Evidently that sentiment is not commonly held or accepted by 'the
people'. Almost 40 percent disagree.
.
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| User: "\Im George W. Bush and I approved this mess" |
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| Title: Re: What does S. America think of Bush's policies? |
17 Aug 2004 07:54:25 AM |
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"Werner Hetzner" <whetzner@mac.com> wrote in message
news:4121FA5D.7030900@mac.com...
NotBush2004 wrote:
Congratulations Venezuela and President Chavez!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 17, 2004
Venezuela Votes by Large Margin to Retain Chávez
By JUAN FORERO
CARACAS, Venezuela, Aug. 16 - Venezuelans voted overwhelmingly to keep
President Hugo Chávez in power, electoral authorities and international
monitors said Monday. But a strident opposition movement refused to
accept
the results of the recall referendum, raising prospects for more turmoil
in
Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.
Mr. Chávez, a pugnacious leftist populist who has already survived four
national strikes and a brief coup, won handily after 8.5 million of
Venezuela's 14 million registered voters swarmed polling stations in
voting
that began at 6 a.m. Sunday and ended well past midnight.
"The Venezuelan people have spoken, and the people's voice is the voice
of
God!" said Mr. Chávez, holding a microphone and standing in a balcony of
the
Miraflores presidential palace in a predawn address....
Evidently that sentiment is not commonly held or accepted by 'the
people'. Almost 40 percent disagree.
40% means a good majority agree...
.
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| User: "Werner Hetzner" |
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| Title: Re: What does S. America think of Bush's policies? |
17 Aug 2004 08:11:34 AM |
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\"I'm George W. Bush and I approved this mess\" wrote:
"Werner Hetzner" <whetzner@mac.com> wrote in message
news:4121FA5D.7030900@mac.com...
...
Evidently that sentiment is not commonly held or accepted by 'the
people'. Almost 40 percent disagree.
40% means a good majority agree...
If the majority decides to send you to the Gulag, will you go happily?
.
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| User: "NotBush2004" |
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| Title: Re: What does S. America think of Bush's policies? |
17 Aug 2004 09:32:39 AM |
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"Werner Hetzner" <whetzner@mac.com> wrote in message
news:41220406.7040401@mac.com...
\"I'm George W. Bush and I approved this mess\" wrote:
"Werner Hetzner" <whetzner@mac.com> wrote in message
news:4121FA5D.7030900@mac.com...
...
Evidently that sentiment is not commonly held or accepted by 'the
people'. Almost 40 percent disagree.
40% means a good majority agree...
If the majority decides to send you to the Gulag, will you go happily?
Nothing like fearmongering to make your point. How many people were
Negroponte's death squads responsible for during the eighties? BTW, isn't he
Bush's ambassador to Iraq now?
--
I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me
to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been
enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money
power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the
prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and
the Republic is destroyed."
-- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William F.
Elkins)
Ref: The Lincoln Encyclopedia, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)
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